Scroll
by Lyvance Callele
Summary: Sasuke receives an A-rank mission that would get him off the hook - deliver a medic scroll to Konoha. The Hokage left one important detail about it though. Premise: 4 years after A final duel with Naruto *added Mystery in the genre.* Warning: Don't read if you hate guessing games. * v * You've been warned.
1. Chapter 1

Sasuke waited as the medic nin finished mending the long cut on his arm.

The last mission he had was one of the few B-rank missions that he was allowed to do after his official release from prison.

No one believed that Naruto and Sasuke would survive their final face-off. So when they both woke up from a long coma (well Naruto's was shorter by a month), everyone in the ninja community was shocked.

According to rumors, Sasuke's body was too severed for anyone to think that he would live. When they took his unconscious body from the scene, they didn't even think that he was breathing.

But he woke up. And he woke up inside a cave-like prison that was modified to look like an intensive care unit. A five-inch thick steel door was the only way in and out of the room.

"That will do," the medic nin said, trying to engage in another small talk after examining the work she made on his wound.

Going back to the time when people treated him as a part of the village was impossible. Sasuke never thought that anyone in Konoha would want him roaming around without his hands and feet chained to an iron ball.

After all, he wanted everyone in the village killed.

For the past year however, one year after he was given his first C-rank mission, more people seemed to try to talk to him as if the past didn't happen.

Of course his batch mates in the ninja academy were the first ones who tried to make him feel at home. Naruto was particularly ecstatic when Sasuke was finally allowed to live with the villagers again.

Sasuke didn't respond to the medic nin. He wasn't there to have a conversation. And he knew that the medic nin was just forced into trying to talk to him.

He instead stood up from the hospital bed where he sat on, and proceeded to the door.

"Wait!" the medic nin said. Sasuke didn't even care what she looked like. "Your medicines!"

"I have them," he said – his eyes fixed at his path toward the exit of the hospital.

The medic nin sighed. "Finally! Three words," she said. "I thought you really turned into a mute."

Sasuke kept his face even.

What do you know? The medic nin was flirting.

Being a nasty criminal did give him some benefits. One was that he was freed from his fan girls. But when he finally received a C-rank mission after two years of doing D-rank missions, his fan girls came back. And guess what. They're numbers and method of flirting was worse than before.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that he softened up with the Genin teams he worked with in those D-rank missions.

Sasuke began to walk out to the hallway.

The medic nin followed him, saying something like, 'are you going to report to Tsunade already?'

As if he cared for whatever she said.

"I wish Sakura-chan was here," said someone from the nurses' station.

Sasuke froze and stiffly turned to look at who said it.

Two medic nins were talking beside the station.

"She would know what to do," the medic nin said sadly.

The other medic nin nodded.

Ever since he got out of his prison, he never saw Sakura again.

The last time he saw her was a few days before Tsunade permitted his release.

Sasuke looked away and continued his walk toward the exit doors of the hospital.

He could still recall her face when he first woke up in the cell.

Her eyes were swollen and filled with tears. She looked so frail and broken.

His consciousness only lasted for a few minutes that day.

The next time he woke up, Sakura had an indifferent expression on her face.

"I'll kill you," he remembered him tell her every time she treated her wounds.

But she never responded.

She never frowned. She never cried. She never spoke a word.

The only times she spoke to him was when she checked on how he was feeling – part of the physical examinations that she conducted as his personal medic nin.

Sasuke felt the cool breeze of the village touch his face. He turned to walk toward the Hokage's office, where he was about to submit his report about his mission.

He thought that Sakura volunteered to take care of him because she still adored him.

Based on how apathetic she was with him though, he figured he was wrong.

He couldn't blame her. He tried to kill her after all, and he continued to give her death threats.

Did he regret it? It was probably better that she didn't approach him anymore.

"You know you look like a child who lost his candy, don't you?" he heard Shikamaru, who was suddenly in front of him, say.

Shikamaru and Neji, though he wouldn't vocally admit it, were the only ones he spoke with that made absolute sense. And they calmed him down when he needed to be.

Sasuke threw his death glare on Shikamaru.

Shikamaru sighed. "What a drag," he muttered. "You're scaring children around because of your expression."

Sasuke looked away.

He did see some children running away from his path. He figured it was normal though since he was a notorious criminal.

Shikamaru walked passed him – hands in his pockets and a drowsy expression on his face.

By the looks of his clothes, he just finished an A-rank mission.

Sasuke looked down at the path wanting to continue on his way but feeling difficulties making his legs move.

"I haven't heard anything," Shikamaru said.

Sasuke turned and looked at Shikamaru – a brow raised at the Jounin.

Shikamaru looked at Sasuke. His face was serious…and sad.

"I haven't heard a word about Sakura," he said.

Sasuke couldn't feel his chest. "Why are you telling me this?" he said.

Shikamaru looked away and shrugged his shoulders. "You were thinking of asking me about it," he said. "It's a drag to wait for you to have the guts to do it so I answered it already."

He then walked away, probably to his home so he could get some rest.

Hopefully, Ino wasn't there yet. Despite growing up physically, she still had that nasty habit of nagging. He never quite understood why Shikamaru picked Ino over that Sand ninja.

Ino. She was also kind to him, even when she was with Shikamaru.

When he stopped seeing Sakura around, Ino suddenly became part of his daily life – giving him meals, fixing his apartment, checking his health…

Ino was Sakura's rival and friend. That was why Shikamaru kept tabs on Sakura's whereabouts whether he liked it or not.

Ino was the one of the ninjas who escorted him out of his cell. She told him that Sakura was on a mission, hence her absence from his side.

He didn't care though.

It was the same reason that she gave him in the next instances that Ino came to check on him instead of Sakura; the same reason Shikamaru gave when he spoke with him on the streets about her; and the same reason Naruto gave when he was talkative enough to tell him why she wasn't with them in Ichiraku.

She was busy.

He figured that have such a hectic schedule for missions was in exchange for how frequently stayed with him when he was still imprisoned.

There must have been a bargain for it – a year of being his personal medic nin in exchange for a strenuous series of missions that barely allowed her to be visible in Konoha.

Sasuke sighed.

It wasn't like he wanted to see her. He didn't even know what he would tell her if he saw her again.

Thank you..?

No. That was not Uchiha Sasuke. A 'Hn' would be more appropriate.

Sasuke went on to submit his report to Tsunade.

* * *

><p>Tsunade read the scroll that he handed over.<p>

As a probationary ninja, all his missions were strictly reviewed and scrutinized. The Hokage even sent Anbus to check if his missions did end the way he reported it.

He didn't care. They were just humiliating themselves anyway.

Tsunade nodded and put down the scroll on her table. She then stamped her signature on the scroll.

Sasuke raised a brow at her. "You won't send out Anbus to check it out?"

"Later," Tsunade said looking around the pile of scroll and papers on her table. "I have another mission for you and I need you to do it immediately."

Sasuke wasn't one to complain. He didn't like staying in Konoha much because feeling people's disgust and pity towards him was annoying.

And Naruto was away on a mission with Kakashi. Neji was out on a mission with Tenten that Naruto and Chouji were betting would produce a Hyuuga child. Shikamaru was no doubt sleeping despite the possibility of Ino nagging around his apartment – a daily activity, Sasuke realized after many times of playing Shogi with Shikamaru.

"Hn," Sasuke replied.

Tsunade handed him a scroll. "Your mission is to deliver an important medic scroll to me," she said.

Sasuke took the scroll and was about to open it when Tsunade gripped the end of the scroll tightly.

"This scroll is very important," she said looking seriously at Sasuke. "And the peril of doing this is too much for a Chunin."

Sasuke raised a brow at Tsunade. "This is an A-rank mission?"

It was only then that he realized how stressed Tsunade appeared. Her eyes were deep and a little swollen.

She must have forgotten to do a retouch.

"We're out of Jounins and your skills are at par with the best Anbu," Tsunade said. "Don't get it over your head though."

"Hn."

At par? He could kill the best Anbu without so much as a scratch and he knew Tsunade knew it. It was his status as an ex-criminal and probationary ninja that made her say that he was only "at par."

"So I'm giving you this mission," Tsunade continued. "Get this done and you're off the hook."

"I thought I need fifty more missions to get off the hook."

"Well I'm cutting it to one," Tsunade said.

"Hn. What am I dealing with here, since you don't want me to read about it?"

Tsunade let the scroll go. "Like I said, it's a medic scroll," she said. "It contains information about a mysterious disease that swept a number of villages up north. Powerful nations are after it, so you will encounter a number of ninjas on the way."

Sasuke looked down at the scroll in his hand and nodded.

"Before you leave," Tsunade said pulling something out of her drawer – a box of round blue pills. She handed one to Sasuke. "Swallow this now. It would take effect three hours after you eat it. The client suggested you take it before you leave."

Sasuke raised a brow.

"They're clients," Tsunade said. "…That… And I already checked these pills. They'll just boost your immunity. No harm in not doing it, but just to be sure – swallow it. NOW."

Sasuke took the pill and placed it in his mouth. He felt the pill melt on his tongue, leaving a cool icy taste in his mouth.

He somewhat felt a little anxious after that. It was as if something in that mission was very important to him.

"Open the scroll only when you're out of the gates of Konoha," Tsunade said. "This is a solo mission and I want no one else to know about it."

Sasuke nodded. The mission concerned an outbreak. It was only right that they keep it hidden to avoid unnecessary commotion in the village.

"Good luck," Tsunade said.

Sasuke turned to go.

"Remember, Sasuke," Tsunade said. "You finish this, and you're off the hook. You can live here like a normal ninja again."

Sasuke ignored it and left.

…Off the hook – no Anbus guarding your apartment, no Anbus watching your every move in the village…he might even gain back respect for saving the villagers from an outbreak.

Did it matter though? Why was he staying in Konoha again?


	2. Chapter 2

_Haha! Silly me. I forgot to put an AN in the first chapter. My sincere apologies. So this is my first fanfic for Naruto and yes, it's a Sasusaku thing thought I'm not sure if I can pull it off ^ _v ^ _Anyway, do tell me what you think about it. Thanks!_

* * *

><p>"NOT FAIR!" Naruto shouted as he sat slumped on Sasuke's bed.<p>

Ever since Sasuke was allowed to stay in his apartment again, Naruto had become his most frequent visitor. Heck! He even spent the night there for fun. Of course, he slept on Sasuke's couch.

Sasuke ignored the blonde as he tightly packed his clothes in his backpack.

He had already started packing when Naruto came jumping into his room through the bedroom window.

"We just got here," Naruto whined. "Can't you leave tomorrow morning?"

"Hn," Sasuke said zipping his backpack. "This is an urgent mission. Which reminds me," he said turning to Naruto. "I told you never to touch a thread on my bed, my pillows, or my bed sheets. You're washing those."

Naruto scowled. "Oh come on, Teme," he said folding his arms over his chest. "It's not like I stained your bed sheets or anything."

Sasuke glared at Naruto – his eyes taking in how muddy Narutp's clothes, hands, and face were.

Naruto looked away. "So I'm a little dirty," he said. "Don't tell me you don't sleep on your bed when you're too tired to change your clothes."

"That is **my** bed, Dobe," Sasuke said. "I stain it because I'm the one who washes it."

Naruto smiled. "So if I wash your bed sheets, I can stain it too, neh Teme?"

Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes.

Naruto was hopeless.

He thought their fight to the death would change how Naruto treated him. Well, it did change, come to think of it. It changed for the better, to his surprise.

They openly shared the unspoken bond that he knew had been there since they were Genins. It was only after that fight that he realized that there was nothing else that he could do about it.

Naruto was infectious. And the more he tried to cure his infection, the more it burdened him.

So he decided to just ignore his nagging pride and accept the fact that he saw Naruto as the idiot brother he never had.

Sasuke checked his stash of weapons and began deciding how many of them would be needed in the mission.

Naruto sighed. "So how long is this mission going to take?"

Sasuke just shrugged his shoulders.

"You're coming back here, right?"

Sasuke stared at Naruto.

"No! No! That's not what I meant, Teme," Naruto quickly said, waving his hands in front for emphasis. He then looked away. "It's just that…well…You, Kakashi-sensei, and me are the only ones here in Konoha who make up Team 7."

Sasuke looked down at his holster.

"Sai's a part of the team, sure," Naruto said. "But the three of us…the **four** of us are…you know? We're the original team. I just feel sad when I think about how we all wanted to be with each other again, and now that we can do it…we just end up not being with each other."

Sasuke counted his kunais.

It wasn't his fault, at least not anymore. He made sure that he could be with Kakashi and Naruto when they invited him to train or dine somewhere.

It was Sakura.

Sasuke felt that familiar numbness in his chest.

He remembered one of the times that Sakura visited him. She walked into his cell with his lunch – a bento that he thought she prepared for him.

Thick steel cuffs held his arms in front of him – the metal stretching from below his elbow to his wrist. The same length of cuffs held his feet in place.

He glared at anyone who walked into his cell, especially at Sakura.

He was ashamed of surviving the fight – of knowing that Naruto won by waking up from the coma earlier than he did.

He hated Konoha for the humiliation and torture that it was giving him.

Sasuke remembered Sakura's face as she sat down on his bed and checked his wounds.

She didn't say much when she visited. She didn't even say 'hi' or 'hey' to him the way Ino did.

She just did her job – her eyes barely sparing his face a glance.

"I know Sakura-chan's busy with her mission," Naruto said. "But I just can't help but miss her, you know? Miss **us**." He sighed. "I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I want to make sure you'll come back here so we could still be Team 7. Maybe by the time you get here, Sakura-chan will be back and we'll be really complete!"

Sasuke checked his shurikens.

If Sakura did come back from her mission, would she eat with them in Ichiraku knowing that Sasuke was there?

When she didn't see him on the day Tsunade let Sasuke out of prison, when he didn't see her for the past two years because she was on several missions, Sasuke knew that she was avoiding him.

He couldn't blame her. He threatened her life several times. He even tried to kill her for quite a few times.

He knew she hated him.

If she came home, would Team 7 really be complete? Would she, even just for once, dine with him in Ichiraku again for the sake of reuniting the team?

He didn't think so.

Naruto sighed and watched Sasuke as he chose the weapons he would take for the mission. "I wonder how Sakura-chan is doing in her mission now," he said. "I heard Jirotaiku's still unconscious in the hospital."

"Jiro- who?" Sasuke asked.

"Jirotaiku," Naruto said. "He's one of the Anbus that accompanied Sakura-chan in her mission."

Sasuke stiffened.

"He's in the hospital?"

"That's what Chouji said," Naruto answered, shrugging his shoulders. "Shikamaru confirmed it. He said the medics couldn't do anything about him. The medics think Sakura-chan can help him, but they couldn't call her back from the mission."

"This Jirotaiku is supposed to be with her in her current mission," Sasuke said trying hard not to let Naruto know that he was interested in the topic of their conversation.

"Yup," Naruto answered. "Chouji said Jirotaiku came back to Konoha with a report about their mission, and that he was wounded badly when he reached the gates of Konoha. He's been unconscious since the day they carried him to the hospital. Geez, he's been sleeping for four days now!"

Sasuke suddenly felt anxious.

He remembered the conversation of the two medics in the hospital that morning.

Were they talking about the Anbu?

What was Sakura's mission again? No one knew. All they were told was that she was assigned to do a mission in a far away village.

When was that?

Sasuke stiffened.

"She's been away for almost a year now," he muttered to himself.

"Yeah," Naruto said hearing Sasuke. "Shikamaru said it was a mission that evolved into several missions. And since the place was so far away, it was a hassle to send another group of ninjas to take over the follow up missions. So Sakura's team is still out there in that village. Hey! You were keeping track of her absence! Admit it, Teme. You miss her too, don't you?" Naruto teased.

Sasuke ignored him.

His mission was to get a scroll from a secluded village up north. The scroll was supposed to be a medic scroll – a scroll that either contained information that medics could use, or a scroll that a medic had written for medical purposes.

Could Sakura be the one who wrote the scroll? Was she the one from whom he would get the scroll from?

No. He was being paranoid.

It wasn't the first time that he thought he would see Sakura in a mission. Whenever he left Konoha for a task, he always hoped that he would see her.

Was that what Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura felt when he went rogue? Did they hope to cross-paths with him too?

Sasuke secured his weapons and carried his backpack.

He never saw Sakura in his missions. Why would he see her in that particular mission?

He was over-thinking things.

"I'm going," Sasuke said walking out of the room. "Lock my apartment, Dobe. Tell Kakashi-sensei I'm off to a mission."

"Sure," Naruto said jumping off the bed. "Hey, take this with you!" he said throwing a pouch tiward Sasuke.

Sasuke caught it and stared at it for a moment, raising a brow.

"That's my personal stash of medincines that Sakura-chan made," Naruto said. "It's very useful. Take care, Teme!"

Sasuke sighed and walked out of the apartment.

* * *

><p>"You didn't tell him," Kakashi said standing on a tree branch overlooking the Konoha gates.<p>

Sasuke had just walked out of the gates with the scroll containing the mission specifics tightly in his hand.

"He may have swallowed parts of his pride now," Tsunade said standing beside Kakashi and watching the same scene – Sasuke walking away from Konoha. "But it doesn't mean that he would accept the mission if I told him about it."

Kakashi sighed. "Is there really nothing else that we can do?"

"Trust me," Tsunade said. "I've thought about that several times. This is the only thing we can do right now, other than hope for a miracle."

Kakashi nodded. "I just hope he doesn't crack after this."


	3. Chapter 3

_Thank you so much for reading the two chapters for Scroll! Thank you also for the reviews! Here's another chapter. Please read and review. Naruto is not mine. Hope you like it!_

* * *

><p>Sakura walked into the prison cell.<p>

It was more like a cave dug deep underneath the hidden village.

It was made after the village was sure that the traitor survived.

He couldn't wake up in a hospital. They were afraid that he would break out of the facility.

And if he didn't break out of the facility, the hokage was sure that there were people in the village who would try to take his life.

Very few people wanted to keep him alive.

Sakura waited for the guards outside to seal the steel door that hid the cave from the passage way that lead to the outside world.

She waited until the chakra on the steel door was fully reinforced before stepping further into the room.

The light from the candle in the cave was dim.

He was sleeping.

Sakura walked toward the bed.

The medical equipments were shipped back to the hospital. He had fully recovered. He was good enough to leave the cell and attend his formal trial.

Sakura sat down on the bed.

He was sleeping. He had been kind enough to sleep without the aid of the tranquilizers for the past three weeks. But the security put a couple of drops of sedative in his food just to make sure that he slept deeply in the evening.

Sakura smiled and touched the steel cuffs holding his arms.

They were heavy. She made sure they were heavy enough to keep him in place. The chakra on the cuffs was also powerful enough to absorb any amount of chakra energy he would make to get himself free.

Sakura's vision blurred.

She didn't want him to live that way.

She wiped her eyes dry and raised his blanket to cover his chest.

"I'm sorry," she whispered though she knew he wouldn't hear it. "I'm so sorry. Everything will be better, I promise," she said. "Just give Konoha a chance. You still have a family here - a family that still cares for you. Give us a chance. Give **them** a chance. Don't worry. You won't be annoyed anymore, I promise."

She leaned down and pressed her lips on his forehead. She slowly raised her head and gazed at his peaceful face.

Sakura smiled. She bit her lower lip until it bled, trying not make too much noise while tears slid down her face.

She gently combed his soft black locks using her fingertips.

She would miss him. She would miss him the way she did when he left.

But it was for the better.

"You'll be happy now," Sakura whispered. "You will be happy now."

She slowly stood up and walked away from the bed. She headed to the steel door and took several breaths to calm herself down.

She was crying. She was crying and she was trying to hide it.

"Sakura," Sasuke called.

But she didn't turn to look at him.

Everything went black instead.

* * *

><p>Sasuke quickly sat up – gasping for breath.<p>

He found himself on a bed of a ship cabin.

…Right. He was on a mission to get a scroll up north. He rode a ship after a day of travelling by land.

Sasuke sighed and covered his face with his hands. Sweat slid down his forehead.

He had been having the dream for the past six months now. If he didn't dream of that particular scene, he dreamt about those times that Sakura visited him in the cell – those times that he threatened her life and told her how happy he would be if she didn't exist.

Sasuke took a deep breath and sighed.

Breathing was always a difficult thing to do whenever he woke up from those dreams. They were as horrible as the nightmares he had before – those nightmares where he came home to a ghost town, where he lost his family…where he killed his brother….

Sasuke shook his head.

He had a mission. He had to clear his head and stay focused.

Sasuke stood up and walked out of the cabin. He stopped by the door when he realized how cold the air was. He quickly pulled out his cloak and wrapped it around him.

The instructions on the scroll were simple. He had to get the scroll from a village located in a mountain up north. He was given one month to hand it to Tsunade.

The first step was going to the to the island where the mountain was.

Sasuke looked out at the cloudy horizon. It was still dark but it wasn't dark enough to look like the sun hadn't risen.

The crew was busy preparing the ship for the shore.

"We'll be on land in a few minutes," the captain said standing next to Sasuke.

Sasuke ignored him and watched the silhouette of the island form on the thick clouds. He felt a familiar numbness in his chest.

"I'm getting my things," Sasuke told the captain.

"Aye," the captain said. "Good luck."

* * *

><p>"You're here for the village too?" the old man selling fish asked Sasuke. "It's in that mountain over there. A lot of travelers are going to that village these past few weeks," he snorted.<p>

It wasn't snowing in the village near the shore but the temperature was very low. It was cold enough to turn one's breath into a gust of smoke. Sasuke had his winter clothes on – a hood covering his head.

He was also ordered not to tell anyone other than the village doctor that he was a ninja from Konoha.

"It will take a day to get there," the old man continued. "You'll need a horse. I can sell you one!"

"No thank you," Sasuke said, handing the old man a bag of coins. The old man offered him some fish a few moments ago. Sasuke asked him about the village he was looking for instead. "You said you saw travelers head there just a few weeks ago?"

"Yes," the old man answered. "A group of them – four people. They hid their faces. They asked me for directions too. I told them what I told you. You have to be careful. Those travelers didn't look so good. They were big and hideous! I can sell hire a ninja who can protect you!"

Sasuke ignored the old man and looked at the path that supposedly led to the village where the medic scroll was.

A worn and old torii marked the path.

"I can ask a Konoha ninja to take you there!" the old man cried out.

Sasuke stiffened and turned to the old man. "Konoha ninja?"

"Yes, Yes!" the old man said, nodding eagerly. "They're the best ninjas anyone can have," he said. "And I know one of them. Yes, sir, I do."

Sasuke turned to look at the old man.

The hokage didn't tell him who wrote the scroll, or who held the scroll. The instructions just said he would take the scroll from a village doctor who wanted to give the scroll to Konoha for safe-keeping.

If the old man saw Konoha ninjas in the area, Tsunade must have already sent someone else for the job...and a group of ninjas at that.

So why send him?

Was Jirotaiku one of the ninjas that were sent there?

"I don't believe you," Sasuke told the old man before turning away. "Why would ninjas come here?"

The old man chuckled. "Those people in the village up that mountain are crazy," he said. "So many people died there. No one could explain why and how. They called for ninjas to help them. Trust me. That place is evil. It sucks the life out of people. And you need protection. I can have a ninja work for you...for a price, of course."

Sasuke looked at the path once more. "When was the last time you saw those ninja's you know, if you **do** know any?"

The old man laughed. "Why I have one in my home right now! He's a very good friend of mine. Come with me!"

Sasuke ignored the man and walked toward the path.

"Wait! I'll give you a discount!" the old man cried out. "You'll die there on your own!"

Sasuke kept his eyes on the path.

Perhaps Konoha ninjas were indeed deployed in the village. But Sasuke was sure the old man was lying about having a ninja, much less a Konoha ninja, staying in his house.

…Unless Naruto was there.

Sasuke sighed.

The steeper the path went, the lesser the vegetation on it…and the lesser the vegetation, the colder the path became.


	4. Chapter 4

_Thank you so much for reading and reviewing Scroll! Here's another chapter. Do tell me what you think about it. Naruto is not mine. _

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><p>Sasuke sighed as he gazed at the snow falling harshly on the black and white forest.<p>

It was evening and he had to stop because of a strong snow storm.

…One-day-journey? Hn.

Sasuke pulled his cloak tighter around him.

He made a thick cave-like shelter out of the snow and made a fire inside it to warm him. With the strong snow storm plaguing the woods, the make-shift shelter was easily concealed.

Sasuke could barely see anything through the frosty fog. But he kept himself prepared for anyone who might try to attack him. He even activated his sharingan to be sure no one was trying to entrap him.

The coast was clear.

…Or so he thought. On a branch of one of the hibernating ebony trees in the woods stood a shadow of a man, eyeing him cautiously.

He smirked.

"This will be interesting," the man thought to himself.

* * *

><p>It took another day for Sasuke to reach the village.<p>

It was past noon when he reached a tall wooden gate that marked the main entrance to the village.

"You are..?" A burly, tall, dark man standing guard near the gate asked – his hand ready to wield his katana in one wrong move.

"I was called for by Dr. Kayuki Kaitaro," Sasuke answered, his cloak still covering his head like a hood. He kept his head bowed a little to keep his head protector from being seen.

The man snorted. "There's no Dr. Kaitaro in this village," he said smirking at Sasuke.

Sasuke pulled out the scroll that Tsunade gave him before he left Konoha.

It was a hand-written letter from a Dr. Kayuki Kaitaro of the Frost Peak Village.

The man took the scroll and read it. His face contorted into a frown before he threw a glare at Sasuke. "New assistant, huh?" the man said staring at Sasuke from head to toe. "You don't look like someone who'd assist a doctor."

"Hn," Sasuke replied looking bored at the man.

A pale thin man in thick robes walked out of the open gates and approached the man on guard and whispered something in his ear.

Sasuke watched them, knowing what the news given to the guard was.

By the frown on the guard's face and the intense glare Sasuke was receiving, the thin man had just informed the guard about a request from the doctor who requested for Sasuke's presence.

The guard nodded and told the messenger to run along. "Do you know what this Dr. Kayuki Kaitaro looks like?" he grumpily asked Sasuke.

"This is the first time I will see him," Sasuke replied.

The guard grunted. "Follow me," he said motioning for another guard to take his place. "Apparently someone is looking for something in the likes of you."

Sasuke ignored the comment and followed the guard into the village.

It was your average snowy village. Houses were made more from wood than from stone. High walls made of cemented rocks surrounded the place from the harm of the gloomy woods.

Everyone in the village seemed silent and wary.

Sasuke and the guard went through the market place. Despite the number of people exchanging goods, the place was plagued with whispers.

People also either watched Sasuke cautiously or glared at him viciously as he walked down the street.

"We don't like strangers here," the guard said, his eyes focused on the path they were taking.

Sasuke stayed silent.

The village itself was located far from the villages on the island's shore. How people there viewed strangers was expected.

They passed through several houses before they reached a house that had wide wooden doors. The doors slid open, allowing an old woman and a young woman to walk out from the house.

The young woman held a bag that Sasuke supposed was medicine.

The two stared at Sasuke. The old woman seemed frightened at his presence while the young woman looked more like she was flirting.

"Is the doctor in?" the guard asked the two.

"Yes, I am in," a man said as he walked out after the women. He was a middle-aged man. His eyes smiled with his mouth. "A pleasant day to you, Daiki."

The guard bowed at the man. "A good day to you too, doctor," he said. "I have a man here looking for Dr. Kayuki Kaitaro."

"Ah! You must be the assistant my friend sent me," the doctor said smiling excitedly at Sasuke. "Come in! Come in! Thank you so much for taking him here, Daiki."

The guard, Daiki, stared warily at the doctor.

The doctor chuckled. "You can stay here if you wish," he told Daiki, shrugging his shoulders.

Daiki shook his head. "I better get back to my post," he said before turning away and glaring at Sasuke.

Sasuke stared apathetically back at him.

"If you even dare to touch a hair of the doctor," Daiki whispered. "I will chop you to pieces."

Sasuke ignored him and walked to the doctor.

The doctor sighed and led Sasuke inside.

* * *

><p>"I'm very sorry for how Daiki treated you," Kaitaro said pouring Sasuke a cup of tea.<p>

Sasuke sat in front of him in the receiving area of the house.

Kaitaro's house turned to be more like a mansion that was divided into two parts – the clinic that housed the main entrance, and the main house.

Kaitaro led him into the main house.

"He's a good child," he said. "He just had this trauma on strangers." Kaitaro handed the cup of tea to Sasuke.

"Same as the villagers," Sasuke said, taking a sip of the tea.

Kaitaro sighed. "Yes," he said looking sadly away. "A lot of things happened these past few years."

Sasuke put his tea cup down in front of him. "I was told to deliver a scroll to Konoha."

Kaitaro chuckled. "Yes, you were," he said. "I'm afraid however that the scroll is yet to be finished."

Sasuke raised a brow at the doctor.

"I hope you weren't given a deadline for this mission?" Kaitaro said.

"A month," Sasuke answered.

Kaitaro nodded. "That is sadly good enough," he said looking away and standing up from his seat. "My daughter will take you to her tomorrow morning. It's a little late for you to go on another journey up the mountain."

"You're not the one writing the scroll?" Sasuke asked, standing up to follow the doctor.

Kaitaro chuckled. "Nope," he said. "Don't blame your Hokage though. I asked her not to tell anyone, not even the one she will send to us, who the one writing the scroll is. That last one who knew about that fact almost died on his way back to your village."

Sasuke stared at the doctor. "Jirotaiku..?" The name slipped off his tongue with ease.

The doctor looked at Sasuke sadly. "Yes, Jirotaiku," he said. "Come. I'll take you to your room for tonight."


	5. Chapter 5

_Yey! I uploaded something! Thank you all so much for reading 'Scroll.' Here's another chapter. Hope you enjoy it! Do tell me what you think about it. I'm open to comments and suggestions for this story. Tah! ^ _v

* * *

><p>Keiko, Dr. Kaitaro's daughter was seven years old, short, plump, sweet, had her long brown hair braided, and was at that moment glaring hard at Sasuke from across the dining table.<p>

She was a cheerful little girl. She had been yelling "I'm home" since she opened the door to the house. And she had been screaming "Otou-san" sweetly when she ran into the house with her arms wide open, waiting to give the doctor a suffocating hug.

Keiko had quite an earlobe-shattering squeaky voice. And though Sasuke would never openly admit it, the child was cute…

…That was until she laid eyes on Sasuke.

Her big round chocolate eyes that looked so gentle and charming sent chilling glares at Sasuke.

"You're the Konoha ninja," she said in a very low tone.

Sasuke just stared at her.

"Now Keiko, please behave," the doctor said still holding Keiko in his arms. "His name is Uchiha Sasuke and he is our guest."

Keiko kept her fierce eyes on Sasuke. "I know who you are," she told Sasuke. "Jiro-kun told me a lot of things about you."

Sasuke smirked.

Did he now?

"You must be so happy now," Keiko angrily muttered.

"Keiko," the doctor said, stopping the little girl.

Keiko winced and looked sadly up at her father.

"He doesn't know," Kaitaro said.

Sasuke wanted to glare at the doctor.

That was one thing he wanted to ask him about.

The doctor had already showed him his room and prepared a hot bath for him to help him rest his body from the journey. But he did not tell him more about his mission – where he was going the next day, what he was going to do while the scroll wasn't finished, who he was going to meet…He didn't know a lot of things and each time he prompted to be filled in with any useful information, the doctor redirected the conversation.

Keiko glared at Sasuke again. "He's still going to be so happy," she angrily said before she marched off, probably to her room.

Kaitaro sighed. "I'm very sorry, Uchiha-san," he said looking shyly at Sasuke. "She's been believing some of Jirotaiku-san's exaggerated stories."

Sasuke ignored it. "She will take me to the writer of the scroll tomorrow?" he asked.

"Yes," Kaitaro answered. "I want to be the one to take you there but I'm afraid the circumstances here at the moment aren't permitting it. She knows the way well enough."

"How long will it take for us to reach the place?"

"At least three hours," Kaitaro said. "She also takes her food there regularly so you don't need to worry about how she'll come back here. She knows the path well enough. In fact, she just got home from delivering food to her."

The writer of the scroll needed people to deliver her food. Was she physically incapable of preparing her own food?

They had dinner that evening – the three of them – and that was where Keiko glared at Sasuke from across the dining table.

Kaitaro tried to reprimand Keiko but the little girl kept her violent attitude toward Sasuke.

Sasuke didn't mind it. He wasn't there to please her anyway.

* * *

><p>He took a bath after eating supper.<p>

Sasuke sunk down the tub – the warmth of the water soothing his skin from the chill.

He closed his eyes and sunk his head deep into the water.

Images began to flood his thoughts…sounds…voices…

…Pale green eyes.

Sasuke gasped and quickly lifted his head off the water, coughing out the liquid that burned his air passage.

It took him quite a while to recover. Sasuke took several deep breaths before he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

Why did he think of a pair of pale green eyes?

Sasuke opened his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck.

Keiko was going to take him to the scroll the next morning. He would finally be doing what he was sent to do...to wait for the scroll to be finished?

Sasuke sighed and looked down at his faint reflection on the water.

He barely had any noticeable scar from his fight with Naruto four years ago. It must be the years…or how he was healed.

But if there was one thing that reminded him of how he almost died, it was the oddly shaped scar on his chest, just above his heart.

It looked like a burn mark – the light colored patch on the skin making a curved centipede-like scribble that anyone would mistake as some kind of foreign symbol.

Sasuke touched the scar with the tip of his fingers.

He wondered if Sakura was the one who closed the wound that caused the scar.

Sasuke felt that familiar numbness on his chest. He felt hollow. It was as if there was a hole in his chest – a hole that felt natural to him...too natural. It was so hard to describe…

The only thing about it that Sasuke was sure of was he felt no pain there in that particular spot in his chest. It just felt empty.

Sasuke sighed and got off the tub.

It wasn't the time to dwell on such things. He had a mission to complete.

* * *

><p>Sasuke walked behind Keiko.<p>

It was early in the morning and they were hiking up the mountain. The snow was thick enough to cover Keiko's boots-covered ankles.

But she was still too pissed at Sasuke to accept his offer of giving her a piggy back ride.

Sasuke stared at Keiko as she tried to lift her legs from sinking into the snow. Judging by their pace at that moment, it would take them forever to reach their destination.

Sasuke took a deep breath and stealthily moved toward Keiko.

Sure Keiko looked tough. But what was the worst thing a little girl like her could do to him?

Keiko gasped as Sasuke scooped her in from the ground and carried her in his arms. "What are you doing?" Keiko cried out. "Put me down!"

Sasuke ignored her and continued to walk down the snowy path.

"Hey! Are you deaf or something?"

Sasuke kept his eyes on the path.

Keiko glared at Sasuke and tried to kick her way out of Sasuke's arms.

Of course it didn't do much…until Keiko screamed.

"NO! Not that way! Turn right! Right!"

Sasuke stopped and closed his eyes. He felt like his ear drums were crumbling.

Sasuke did as Keiko said but kept the girl in his arms.

Keiko sighed and stared at Sasuke. "You're not going to let me go, are you?"

"Hn."

Keiko rolled her eyes. "It's true then," she said wrapping her arms around Sasuke to keep make herself more comfortable while he walked. "You can only say one word. Wait. I don't think that's even a word."

Sasuke ignored it. She was a kid for goodness' sake.

Keiko snuggled closer to Sasuke. She let him listen to silence for the next hour, talking only when they needed to walk on a particular direction.

"Will you kill her?" Keiko asked.

Sasuke raised a brow at the child.

Keiko's eyes were fixed on her frail hand that gripped Sasuke's cloak.

"Who will I kill?" Sasuke asked seeing the girl had no plan of elaborating her question.

"The writer of the scroll," Keiko said. "Are you going to kill her?"

Keiko still didn't look at him.

"My mission is to take the scroll to our village," Sasuke answered.

Keiko smiled and looked up at him. "You won't kill here then," she said.

"My mission is to take the scroll," Sasuke said. "If she refuses…"

"She won't refuse," Keiko immediately cut him off. "She's writing it so it could be taken to your village. She won't refuse. So you won't kill her, right?"

Sasuke suddenly felt like the writer of the scroll had something to do with him. Was she someone he knew? Someone he would want to be dead?

Was it someone from his past team? Was it someone he fought with when he was still obsessed with getting his revenge?

Was it…Was it someone he hadn't seen for a very long time?

Sasuke winced as the pair of pale green eyes flashed in his mind. He felt his chest grow numb and hollow again.

No. It couldn't be Sakura. Sakura's eyes were a lively shade of green.

And Sakura couldn't be the writer of the scroll. The Hokage could have told him so before he left the village.

And he wouldn't want her dead.

Sasuke tried to ignore the numbing of his chest.

"Promise me you won't kill her," Keiko said burying her head against Sasuke's shoulder. "Please, Uchiha-sama. Promise me you won't hurt her and I'll be a very good girl. Please, Uchiha-sama. Please, please, please…"

Sasuke wanted to yell at her at that moment. It wasn't easy listening to a squeaky-voiced crooning little girl.

"She is willing to give me the scroll," Sasuke said.

Keiko took it as a 'yes' and smiled widely at Sasuke. "THANK YOU! THANK YOU THANK YOU!" she exclaimed, planting kisses at Sasuke's cheeks.

Sasuke just wanted to throw her away from him.

"Hey, can you fly from tree to tree like Jiro-kun?" Keiko asked.

Fly? What did she think he was? …Some blood-sucking flying monster?

Sasuke ignored the comment and instead held her tighter against his chest. "Do we just walk straight from here on?"

"Yes," Keiko answered.

Sasuke secured Keiko and jumped toward the nearest tree branch. Keiko shrieked in excitement.

He landed on the branch with his two feet, and before Keiko could recover from the feat, Sasuke jumped off the branch and started gliding toward the next tree.

* * *

><p>Keiko's laughter and ecstatic shrieks echoed in the forest.<p>

She smiled and pumped a small amount of chakra in her legs to help her stand up. She looked toward a part of the forest that surrounded her house – the part where Keiko always appeared when she visited.

She must be with the Konoha ninja who would be delivering the scroll to the Hokage once it was finished.

She took a deep breath and sighed. She would finally have someone she could talk to about Konoha.


	6. Chapter 6

_Thank you all for reading and reviewing "Key," "Are you happy?" "Twisted Tales" and "Scroll." Thank you also for including them in your favourite list. I am still in awe at reading email notifications for these stories, especially those about the stories I finished a month or so ago. _

_I don't know how to tell those people who caused those notifications just how happy they made me, and since some of them also read this story, I'm posting this AN note to tell you (or them, if it's not you ^ _v _^ ) about it. _

_Anyway, here's another chapter for Scroll. Please read and review. Naruto is not mine. _^ v ^

* * *

><p>"Oneesan!" Keiko called out.<p>

Sasuke put her down on the snowy ground and watched her run toward someone not far from them.

That must be the reason why she was so concerned about him, taking the life of the writer of the scroll – the scroll's author was Keiko's older sister.

Sasuke trudged the snow – his hood still covering most of his face – and followed Keiko to meet the writer.

Keiko's oneesan stood on the snow – a thick pale kimono protecting her body from the cold.

The snow was falling and it seemed oddly dramatic for such a meeting.

The icicles on the twigs obscured his vision of her. He needed to walk further – closer to have a better look at who it was.

Then he saw a petal – a pink cherry blossom petal flying across his vision.

Sasuke froze.

It wasn't a petal. It was moving, yes, but it wasn't flying across his vision.

It was there – it was a patch of pink right there in front of him…strands of pink…short strands of pink framing a face…

Sasuke's eyes went wide.

Keiko jumped up to wrap her arms around Sakura's middle tightly.

Sakura chuckled as she lifted Keiko up from the snow.

"I missed you," Keiko said, burying her face on Sakura's neck.

She giggled. "Oh Keiko," she said. "You were just here yesterday. You brought me dinner, didn't you?"

Keiko looked shyly up at her – her plump cheeks in pink. "I still missed you," she said.

"I missed you too," Sakura replied placing a soft kiss on Keiko's forehead.

She then stood up straight and watched the shadow moving toward them glide on the thick snow.

His skin was fair…his hair dark… his build…

She smiled. She never thought the Hokage would send **him** of all people.

Well, any company was good company.

Sasuke pulled his hood off in an attempt to prove himself that what he was seeing was a hoax.

Sakura chuckled and smiled at the visitor. "Sai! –suke..?" she gasped staring shocked at Sasuke as the hood revealed his face.

Sasuke stared at the image of Sakura standing in front of him.

He was dreaming. He was sure of it. If he wasn't dreaming, he was sure someone just used a genjutsu on him.

He couldn't be seeing Sakura wearing a pale beige kimono in the middle of the forest. He couldn't be seeing her staring surprised at him with those pale green eyes…

…Pale green eyes. Why did she have pale green eyes?

"Sasuke," she said and it immediately erased all the doubts and fears that Sasuke felt about her.

This was Sakura. **She** was Sakura.

"Hn," Sasuke answered, and Sakura knew the next month was going to be quite an interesting one.

* * *

><p>Keiko doubtfully stared at Sasuke as she stood by the door.<p>

She had delivered the soup that his father cooked for Sakura. And since she was also done in taking Sasuke to Sakura, she had to leave.

"Sasuke can walk you home," Sakura said watching Keiko stare at Sasuke.

Sasuke was staring blankly back at Keiko.

"No," Keiko said. "I can go home on my own."

"Are you sure?" Sakura asked.

Keiko nodded sullenly before she turned around and took a step toward the porch of the old house where Sakura stayed.

The house she stayed in was an old minka house with dividers made of paper separating two bedrooms from the two other rooms in the house – the hearth that served as a kitchen, and the space that seemed to be used as a small office.

The house had a small porch just beyond the door.

Keiko turned and gave Sasuke a warning glare.

Sasuke ignored it while Sakura rolled her eyes.

"It's all okay, Keiko-chan," she said. "I know him. He won't hurt me."

Sasuke felt his chest grow numb again.

Something in that statement somehow made him feel…guilty.

Keiko looked up at Sakura and nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said, giving her a hopeful smile.

Sakura chuckled. "Yes, you will. Be careful on your way home!"

Keiko pranced out of the porch yelling, "I will!"

Sakura shook her head and sighed as Keiko vanished into the woods.

Sasuke stared at Sakura.

She looked…different.

She didn't grow her hair long anymore. And the pinkness of her hair seemed duller than he remembered. Her eyes were even still a shade of pale green.

Perhaps it was the light. It wasn't that bright inside the house with the snow clouds hovering close to the mountain.

And he barely felt her chakra…Perhaps she was concealing it for security purposes.

"Have you eaten?" Sakura asked breaking the silence.

"Hn," Sasuke answered.

Sakura nodded and turned to walk toward the make-shift office in a corner of the house. It had a small table with scrolls and papers scattered all over the place. "As usual," she muttered.

Sasuke eyed the forest carefully. "No traps?"

Sakura spared him a bored glance. "Jiro-kun is the one who's in charge of putting up defenses here," she said. "I think some of his traps are still working. I'm supposed to finish the scroll on time, you see."

Sasuke stepped out to the porch.

Jiro-**kun** huh? And she didn't check on the traps? What was wrong with her? She was supposed to be one of the best Konoha ninjas! Fine, she was a medic nin and she had the Hokage's incredible strength...but still!

"I'm setting some up," Sasuke said.

Sakura nodded. "Thank you," she said. "Tea when you're done?"

"Hn," Sasuke answered before he disappeared.

Sakura sighed and sank down on the floor.

He was the last person Sakura wanted to see.

* * *

><p>It took Sasuke half an hour to fix the traps around the house.<p>

He could have spent less time in doing it. But he somehow didn't feel like he wanted to get into the house and see Sakura.

She was so frail and thin… It was as if she was sick. Perhaps it was the seclusion. If his memory served him right, the author began writing the scroll, according to the background he got from the Hokage's note, more than six months ago. Due to life-threatening conflicts going on in the village, it took the author quite some time to finish it.

Then they made a deadline. And he was sent there to get the finished scroll to Konoha.

And since the scroll wasn't finished by the time he got there, he would have to stay with the author longer – he would have to spend the next weeks with Sakura.

Shouldn't he be happy about it though? After all, he had been hoping to see her ever since he got out of his prison cell.

But when he saw her earlier that day he felt…shocked, yes, but he felt more like…scared..?

No. Uchiha Sasuke did **not** feel scared. An Uchiha does **not** feel scared.

Sasuke sighed as he fixed the string on the tree and took a glance at the old house where Sakura was.

There was a faint light glowing through the windows, and smoke coming out from a part of the roof.

No, he didn't feel scared. He felt…guilty.

He had always believed that her stay with him required her to get missions that would make up for the time she lost in taking care of him.

Sasuke checked all the traps one last time before he walked back into the house.

* * *

><p>Sakura was seated on the corner of the house that partly resembled the Hokage's office table when Sasuke went in. She sat hunched over a scroll – quill in hand and eyes checking several scripts and texts on the papers that were scattered around her.<p>

Sasuke saw two cups of tea near the hearth where a steamy tea pot sat. He took the cups and uncharacteristically walked toward Sakura.

Sakura felt him stand near her and looked up at him.

Sasuke offered her one of the cups of tea.

Sakura took it and looked down at the papers on her table.

Sasuke walked a few steps away from her and sat down on the floor, listening to the wind of the snow storm that was about to hit the mountain.

"What were your instructions?" Sakura asked, eyes fixed on the scroll that she was writing on.

Sasuke looked at her and noticed how indifferent she was.

His presence didn't seem to affect her anymore.

"Take the scroll to Konoha," Sasuke answered seeing as Sakura wasn't joking when he asked the question.

Wasn't she the one who requested for assistance?

Sakura nodded and sighed. "I'll be honest with you," Sakura said. "I didn't expect the Hokage to send you here. I was hoping to see Jiro-kun or…"

"Jirotaiku," Sasuke corrected.

Sakura ignored it. "Jirotaiku's been with me since the mission began," she said. "He knows what to do while the scroll isn't finished."

"Jirotaiku's in the hospital," Sasuke said recalling what Naruto told him.

Sakura froze.

"He was ambushed on his way back to Konoha," Sasuke said.

Sakura's face softened. "How is he?" she asked – her voice faint and weak.

Sasuke froze. That was Sakura. That was the Sakura he knew!

"I…I don't know," Sasuke answered.

Sakura nodded and slipped her apathetic face on.

Silence filled the room after that.

Sasuke felt the numbness in his chest again.

Jirotaiku pulled the Sakura he knew back the way his presence couldn't.

A lot of things **have** changed.

"What does he do here?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura stopped writing and looked up at Sasuke – brows raised.

"I'm here," Sasuke said. "What does he do?"

Sakura stared at him for a moment before she went back to writing on the scroll. "Go to the village tomorrow and buy me some vegetables," she said. "I've ran out of ingredients for soup."

Sasuke sipped his tea.

So the mission only an Anbu or a Jounin could take on involved shopping.

He looked around the room and saw how untidy it was.

Would it also involve house chores?


	7. Chapter 7

_Sorry it took me a while. And thank you all so much for reading and reviewing Scroll! _

_Here's another chapter. Do tell me what you think about it ^ _v

* * *

><p>Sasuke stood in front of the clinic as he waited for the doctor to come out. He held a worn basket in his hand.<p>

Keiko stood in front of him.

They were once again having a staring contest.

Kaitaro noticed this as he secured the door and sighed.

"How is she?" Keiko asked Sasuke, no doubt trying to make sure that Sakura was still alive.

She's dead – slit her throat the moment you left the house…burned her in the middle of the snow storm and got the unfinished scroll into my pocket.

I'm actually here to buy supplies for my trip back to Konoha.

Of course he didn't say those things. He was an Uchiha and an Uchiha did not stoop to the level of people who made no sense…with the exception of the stupid Uzumaki.

"Keiko," the doctor said walking toward them. "Sasuke-san is here to buy Sakura-chan food. Of course, she's alive. And there is no reason why he would kill her."

"Jiro-kun said he tried to strangle her once," Keiko said.

…Of course. That Jirotaiku had to be that stupid and talkative enough to a child who didn't need to know about the lives of ninjas, most importantly of Konaha ninjas.

"Jiro-kun tends to exaggerate a lot," the doctor said. "You know that."

That was very kind of the doctor. Should Sasuke tell him that he really tried to strangle Sakura? …With one hand? After all, Sakura was trying to stab him with a poisoned Kunai at that time. He had every right to try to kill her back.

Keiko scowled at Sasuke. "Did she eat my soup?"

Sasuke wanted to just glare at her. But something in her worried expression made him think twice about it.

…Kids and their faces…**That** was why the girls in Konoha stopped fearing him – it made him soft.

"Yes," Sasuke said.

Keiko's eyes softened. "You said she had a list of things you should buy?"

Sasuke didn't answer.

Keiko reached out her hand. "I know where in the market you can buy them," Keiko said. "I'll help you."

Kaitaro smiled. "Keiko-chan is very good at shopping," he told Sasuke.

Sasuke took a glance at Kaitaro before he handed her the list that Sakura gave him after he had breakfast that morning.

He could still recall how Sakura ordered him to go shopping.

Sakura sat on her table, scribbling something on a length of paper.

Sasuke had finished his breakfast – a bowl of stew and a piece of bread, both from the basket of food that Keiko brought to Sakura the day before.

He stood up to wash the dishes outside when Sakura called him.

"You need to go to the market," Sakura said, her eyes on the list she was making.

Sasuke paused for a moment before he headed outside to wash the dishes. When he came back, Sakura handed him a slip of paper – the exact paper she wrote on just a few minutes ago.

He stared at the scribbles on the paper.

He didn't know Sakura's hand writing was slightly illegible.

"Dr. Kaitaro and Keiko will be visiting the market today," Sakura passively said. "Go with them and buy those."

Sasuke read the list…or what he could make out from it – a variety of vegetables, meat, bread, milk, tea…

He stared at Sakura waiting for her to say it was all a joke.

He was a ninja – and Uchiha ninja. He killed Danzo. He almost killed Naruto - the Uzumaki idiot just got lucky. He wielded lightning. He was Uchiha Sasuke – the legendary outlaw of Konoha.

And she ordered him to go shopping in the market?

It had to be a joke.

But Sakura's face remained straight and emotionless. She looked back at the scroll she was writing on, checking notes from other books and papers that were scattered on the table.

No. It was not a joke. Haruno Sakura just ordered him to go to the market.

"My mission…"

"I know your mission," Sakura said, her pale green eyes still on the writings she was reading. "Go to the market and get us some food supply. In case you haven't noticed, it's not convenient for us to hunt for food here because of the weather, and the situation we are in. Your traps may hold, but it doesn't mean that it's alright for us to be lax in our actions."

So Uchiha Sasuke should go to the market? Where was the logic in that exactly?

Sasuke kept his eyes on Sakura.

After a moment of realizing that Sasuke still found the order incredulous, Sakura looked up at him.

"I can go to the market myself, of course," she said. "I can ignore the deadline and delay my work."

Sasuke glared at Sakura.

And stay there with her for more than a month?

"Money," he said.

Sakura looked back down at her work, pulling a pouch of money from her sleeve and handing it to Sasuke.

He took it and placed the utensils back to the cupboard before he walked out of the house.

Keiko nodded upon reading the list.

"We better start shopping now," Keiko said. "You need to be back to Oneesan before lunch."

Sasuke ignored the comment but followed Keiko and Kaitaro as they walked to the market.

The market was the same as he remembered. There were only few people walking around and purchasing goods.

Sasuke had tied his forehead protector around his neck, where his cloak easily covered it.

He felt the same intense stare from the villagers as he walked behind Keiko and Kaitaro.

The older people stared anxiously at him. The young men sent him glares. The young ladies noted his face and physique. The middle aged men stared at him guardedly.

"My apologies," Kaitaro whispered to Sasuke.

Sasuke glanced at the doctor.

His face was filled with shame. "People here are not used to visitors other than those merchants," he said. "We have secluded ourselves from the world down the mountain so much that not many people here are even aware of the existence of ninjas."

Sasuke kept his eyes on the doctor.

Was this the same reception Sakura received when she got to the place?

"I asked your Hokage to forbid you from showing yourselves as ninjas here in fear that it would do the mission more harm than good," Kaitaro added.

Sasuke looked at Keiko and watched her barter with a seller for some vegetables.

The seller didn't seem to mind his presence. In fact most of the people they bought goods from didn't mind Sasuke's presence at all.

"That's your new assistant?" a man about the same age as Sasuke said as he approached Kaitaro.

Sasuke stared at the man, trying hard not to show his amazement at how the stranger suddenly appeared in front of them.

He tried to sense the man's chakra, but to his surprise, he felt none.

Weren't people in the village supposed to not know anything about ninjas?

"Good morning, Akio-sama," Kaitaro said bowing his head at brown-haired man in front of them.

Akio stared at Sasuke with his dark green eyes. "He doesn't look like he does any medic work," he commented. "You're sure this isn't a ninja of some kind?"

Sasuke kept his face straight.

"He came from a poor family, Akio-sama," Kaitaro reasoned looking up at the young man. "He had to do manual labor to gain education."

Akio smirked. "I'm talking about his energy," he said. "It reeks."

Sasuke glared at Akio.

The man could sense **his** energy but Sasuke couldn't sense Akio's? Preposterous!

Akio smiled menacingly at Sasuke. "You want to say something?"

"I don't answer to you," Sasuke answered.

Akio scowled and glared at Sasuke.

"What he means to say is he knows nothing of what you speak of," Kaitaro said stepping in front of Sasuke and raising his hands in defeat.

"He said he doesn't answer to me," Akio shouted, his dark green eyes slowly turning black.

"He is new here," Kaitaro defended. "He knows nothing of our village's laws."

"Well now he'll, know," Akio said pulling his arm back and aiming his fist at Sasuke's face.

Sasuke smirked. He had been waiting for someone to beat up since he came to the village.

"Enough," a man called out from a far.

Sasuke, Kaitaro and the people around them looked out to see another young man walking toward them. His blond hair glistened in the faint light.

"Mori-sama," Kaitaro said bowing and avoiding the blonde man's pale brown eyes.

"Akio," Mori said keeping his eyes on Sasuke. "Apologize."

Akio glared at Mori. "He disrespected me!"

"He knew not who you are," Mori said calmly.

"You're defending this nobody?" Akio snapped.

Mori glared at Akio. "Yes," he calmly answered. "I am. Do you have a problem with that?"

Akio froze. His black eyes slowly turned back into dark green. He looked away.

Mori looked at Sasuke once more. "Pardon my friend, Akio," he said. "He tends to overreact. You're Dr. Kaitaro's new assistant, yes? Sasuke, I hear. My name is Mori Houren, village chief. Welcome to our village. I hope you had a good reception."

Sasuke kept his face even. "Other than this man here," he said casually. "The reception is well."

Houren nodded. "Akio here is one of the village's high guards. We don't receive guests too often so he doesn't have enough experience when it comes to receiving guests."

Akio sneered. "Just making sure he's not going to spread some plague…"

"She did not spread a plague!" Keiko shouted.

Everyone including Sasuke looked at Keiko.

Her eyes were teary and she was sending nasty glares at Akio. "She saved everyone from the plague! She saved everyone **here** from the plague!"

Akio glared back at Keiko. "Shut your mouth or I'll cut your tongue!"

"No!" Kaitaro said quickly taking Keiko in his arms.

Houren glared at Akio.

Akio froze and looked embarrassed at Houren.

"Shame," Houren muttered before he turned to Kaitaro. "My sincere apologies, doctor. This will not be tolerated."

With that, Houren turned and walked away with Akio close behind him.

The people around them went back to doing what they were doing.

"Keiko, that was wrong," Kaitaro warned his daughter who at that moment was in tears.

"I'm sorry, otou-san," Keiko whispered.

Kaitaro sighed and held Keiko closer to his chest. "Don't do it again. Please."

Sasuke watched the doctor wipe Keiko's tears. He kept his eyes on the doctor, hoping that it sent the doctor some hint that he needed to know what was going on in the village.

Akio spoke of a plague of some sort – most likely the plague that the Hokage told Sasuke about. And based on what Akio said, it had something to do with an outsider.

Keiko's reaction to his comment, and her use of 'she' confirmed the presence of the outsider. But the outsider, according to Keiko and contrary to Akio's suggestion, did not cause the plague. She stopped it and saved the village.

Who was that 'she?' Was it Sakura?

He had been wondering why Sakura stayed in a place that was far from where the village was. It could be because of security, but wasn't having guards protecting the village where she stayed in, a good way to make sure she was safe, assuming that she couldn't defend herself?

If the plague was gone, why was Sakura still writing a scroll about the plague in the village? Couldn't she write it somewhere else, since the facts about the plague most likely came from medical records or journals made when the plague still persisted?

Why keep writing the scroll there? Why not go back to Konoha with her references? Why send for Sasuke?

But Kaitaro kept his eyes away from Sasuke.

Something in the village, in the whole mission was off.

No. There was also something terribly off with Sakura.


	8. Chapter 8

_Thank you for reading and reviewing the previous chapter ^ _v_ ^ Here's another chapter for this week. Don't hesitate to tell me what you think about it!_

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><p>Sakura winced as she slowly stood up from her seat. She wanted to stand up the moment she stopped sensing Sasuke's aura outside, but she had to be sure that he was gone.<p>

She stood up 15 minutes after Sasuke's aura vanished.

Sakura shakily forced herself to take small steps to the door.

She had sat there too long. If Jirotaiku was there, she wouldn't have to sit down that long. But they sent Sasuke, of all the ninjas Konoha could send.

But then, perhaps he was the best man for the job.

Sakura slowly stepped out of the porch and looked around the house for anyone who could be watching her at that moment.

It was again something she didn't have to do if Jirotaiku was the one the Hokage sent.

Sakura sighed and walked slowly down the ground with her bare feet. She let her feet sink into the ankle-high layer of snow and winced at the iciness devouring her feet. She took several deep breaths before she walked to the side of the house where a pond used to be. She sat down at the edge of the slope that at that moment was covered with snow.

Sakura sank her legs down into the pool of snow that reached her knees. She winced as her limbs twitched in agony.

But she had been doing it for quite a while since Jirotaiku made the pool of snow for her.

Sakura sighed and looked out at the pool that was barely visible in the snow. She thought of what Sasuke told her about Jirotaiku.

Hopefully the scroll would reach him on time. If the people in the hospital administered the medicine she gave Jirotaiku, the poison would stay stagnant in Jiro's body for a month or two. There was a great possibility that the scroll will reach him on time.

He would survive.

Sakura smiled as Jirotaiku's face flashed in her mind – his red hair with its tips died in yellow to emulate the flames, his dark black eyes that always looked bored at her, his naughty smirk that told her he had something terrible up his sleeves…

Sure the guy was a pain in the ass. But she had to admit that she missed him.

She remembered that day when Jirotaiku modified the pond for her.

"You want me to replace the ice in the pond with snow?" Jirotaiku asked her in tone that resembled Sai's apathy.

The pond, according to the doctor, was made in an attempt to please his deceased wife. They were able to breed species of fish that could survive in very cold water. But they were forced to move to the town and they took all the fish in the pond to be food.

"You can't exactly fill it up with snow if it still has ice in it, can you, Jiro-kun?" Sakura answered raising a brow at him.

It was early morning and they just had breakfast. Jirotaiku stood on the porch staring at Sakura who sat on the edge of the porch – her feet turning purple on the snow.

"You want me to take all that ice off that pool?" Jirotaiku asked.

Sakura scowled at Jirotaiku. "For an Anbu, you are slow."

Jirotaiku glared at Sakura. "**You** are slow," he said. "I don't use super strength like you do, in case you haven't noticed. I'm not Naruto. I can't do Rasengan. And I'm not Uchiha Sasuke. I can't run Chidori through my katana so it can slice anything. And you expect me to take all that ice off the pool. As much as I love you Sakura, you and I both know, that is **not** part of my mission."

Sakura glared at Jirotaiku. "Your mission is to attend to my needs," she said. "And I **need** that pond to be filled with snow. Fill. It. Up."

Jirotaiku glared harder at Sakura.

Glaring competitions every now and then had been a daily routine since they got to the village.

After a minute or so, Jirotaiku walked out of the porch.

"Where are you going?" Sakura asked.

"I'm making your pool of snow," Jirotaiku said as he trudged through the thick snow to reach the frozen pond.

Sakura smiled.

"Stop smiling," Jirotaiku said without looking at Sakura. He pulled out his katana and stabbed the ice. Less than half of the blade sunk into the ice. "You'll have to give me something in exchange for this."

Sakura frowned. "And what would that something be?"

Jirotaiku smirked and eyed Sakura naughtily. "Nothing expensive," he said. "…Just your virginity."

Sakura watched Jirotaiku fall face-first on the ice after the sandal she threw hard hit his face. His fall made a large crack on the snow.

"Geez, Sakura-chan," Jirotaiku muttered as he tried to stand up from the ice. "You're an old woman. Give it up!"

Another sandal flew toward his face, causing him to fall on the cracked ice and turn the crack into a hole.

Sakura smirked at the memory.

She really missed Jirotaiku.

* * *

><p>Sasuke, Kaitaro and Keiko got back to the clinic after an hour of shopping in the market. Sasuke's basket was already filled with the things Sakura asked him to buy.<p>

"I'll go cook lunch," Keiko said, trotting excitedly into the house.

Kaitaro sighed as he stood next to Sasuke by the clinic door.

"You better go," Kaitaro told Sasuke. "Sakura-san needs to eat on time."

Sasuke just looked at Kaitaro. "I need answers."

Kaitaro stiffened and looked away. "Of course," he said. "It can't be helped." He then turned to Sasuke and smiled sadly at him. "Come help me in the clinic tomorrow. Sakura-san won't mind."

Sasuke wanted to stay. He wanted to glare at the man and torture him until he gave him answers. But something inside him told him to wait for the next day to come.

And yes, Sasuke did not like the feeling. But his body had turned away from the doctor before he could activate his Sharingan.

He was hopping from tree branch to tree branch in no time.

Kaitaro sighed as he watched Sasuke vanish. He wondered if having Sasuke for the mission was right.

* * *

><p>Sasuke glared at the snow-covered ground when he reached the house.<p>

He wanted to be angry. He **was** angry. But somehow his body reacted differently.

He had been noticing it since he got out of prison. Aside from the numbness he felt in his chest when he thought he should feel upset, he couldn't feel **that** angry.

When Naruto went all friendly with him the first time they saw each other after he was released from jail, he wanted to kill him. But his body stayed stiff.

He didn't move. He stayed still until his anger subsided…until he accepted the fact that Naruto was his friend.

Sasuke wanted to activate his Sharingan. He wanted to use his Chidori and destroy a part of the forest. He wanted to make a huge crack on the ground.

The more he thought about it though, the more his body froze. The more he believed he was angry, the more he seemed to feel numb.

What was wrong with him?

"Sasuke, that you?" Sakura's voice echoed from a far.

Sasuke looked up and saw Sakura looking through the open door as she sat on the floor of the house.

He saw her worried face, her pale green eyes looking anxiously at him, and he somehow forgot how angry he wanted to be.

He walked closer to the house until he reached the porch and noticed how Sakura wore a different kimono.

"…Something wrong?" Sakura asked.

"Plague," Sasuke answered.

"Oh. You heard about that," she said in a tone that echoed boredom.

Sasuke kept his eyes on Sakura.

Sakura sighed and looked back at the papers on her table. "Cook lunch and I'll fill you in on the plague," she said.

Sasuke glared at Sakura.

First, he cooked breakfast because Sakura was too busy rushing her work. Second, he washed the dishes because Sakura didn't seem like she had any plans to do it. Third, he went to the market because if Sakura did it, it would take her more than a month to finish the scroll.

Now she's ordering him to cook lunch so he could get answers about the plague?

Sakura rolled her eyes and looked up at Sasuke. "If you want your mission to last more than a month, just say so," she said.

Sasuke marched into the house and began cooking lunch.

She just had to use the mission card. Why was he trying to get the mission done again? Wasn't he supposed to be destroying Konoha?

Sasuke felt his limbs freeze.

Sakura noticed his stillness and eyed him anxiously. She saw the glare he was throwing on the hearth and winced. She looked away and lightly touched her chest.

Sasuke closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

The only way to stop himself from freezing was controlling his temper.

He started to feel his limbs again and silently sighed in relief.


	9. Chapter 9

_Thank you again for reading and reviewing 'Scroll.' Here's another chapter. Please read and tell me what you think about it. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!_

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><p>Silence filled the room as Sasuke and Sakura sat across each other eating the meal that Sasuke cooked – rabbit meat with potato stew and steamy rice.<p>

It was noon but the day was still too dim and gloomy.

Sasuke sipped some stew again before he loudly cleared his throat.

Sakura looked up and stared at him.

Sasuke raised a brow at her.

Sakura sighed and looked down at her food before she took another sip of the stew.

Sasuke glared at Sakura.

He already did his part of the bargain. It was Sakura's turn to do what they agreed on.

Sakura looked up at Sasuke feeling his icy glare. "What do you know about the illness I'm writing about?" she asked.

"It's a mysterious disease," Sasuke answered. "It infected a number of villages up north. Powerful nations are after what you're writing about it."

Sakura smirked and looked down at her food. "I'm assuming the Hokage didn't tell you that I was writing the scroll."

"Hn," Sasuke answered.

Sakura sighed and shook her head. "Konoha received a request from a group of doctors here about a year ago," she began after she took a sip of the tea that Sasuke prepared. "They requested for ninjas who can help them figure out who was trying to annihilate their village."

"The specifics were simple," Sakura said as she ate some rice with a slice of potato from the stew. "After living in the mountain for the past one hundred years, the villagers started contracting a disease that didn't seem to have a cure. The villagers called it a 'plague.' The doctors said it was an epidemic. Worried about the safety of the ninjas that the Hokage would send to the village, she asked me to check on the disease itself. The doctors accepted the medical aid Konoha offered."

"We came in this island with a group of Anbus," Sakura continued. She then stared at nowhere as she recalled the faces of the people she was with when they first set foot on the island. "Jiro-kun was one of them," she said softly.

Sasuke felt something twitch inside him.

Sakura shook her head. "We were five," she said. "…Me, three Anbu's and their Anbu captain."

"Hn," Sasuke said, his eyes narrowing down on Sakura's straight face. "…Too many."

"Jiro-kun was assigned to assist me in my medic research," Sakura answered ignoring Sasuke's harsh tone. "We stayed in the village down the mountain because we weren't sure that we wouldn't be infected by the disease. The doctors visited us with their findings and samples."

Sakura recalled speaking with a woman that closely resembled Keiko. "Doctor Kaitaro and his wife were some of doctors who requested for us," Sakura said.

Sasuke's face softened. He didn't meet Kaitaro's wife. He thought Keiko lost her mother a long time ago.

"They brought us tissue samples, food and water samples, and medical journals," Sakura said. "At one point, I met them in the forest to examine a patient. I was able to make a drug that kept the virus from affecting anyone who was exposed to it. The Anbus and I consumed the pills before we went here to the village."

Sasuke remembered the pill that Tsunade ordered him to swallow before he went on his journey.

So Sakura made that pill.

"The village was in pieces when we arrived," Sakura said wincing at the image she saw in her head.

The village looked more like a ghost town. A number of houses were dismantled and burned. Pained cries of people echoed in the place. Wooden carts were loaded with horrible-looking corpses. In various corners of the village were disease-infected women and children – their arms and legs flaking and bleeding. Infants shrieked in their mothers' arms. Their mothers couldn't breast feed them because their breasts produced blood instead of milk.

"The doctors' houses were converted into hospitals – hospitals that could barely accommodate the number of infected people in the village," Sakura said. "When we arrived in the village, a quarter of the village population was already dead. More than half of the village was infected with the disease and those who have not yet contracted the disease were starting to show early symptoms of the illness."

Sasuke saw the pain in Sakura's eyes. For a moment he regretted what he made Sakura do.

"I made the doctors drink the drug I created," Sakura continued. "When we were sure that the pills worked, we treated the people with minor symptoms and gave them the drug. Then we treated the people that were still in the earlier stages of the illness."

"We ended up saving a third of the whole population," Sakura said. "…The people you saw in the village."

Sasuke remembered what Keiko said when they were in the market.

So she really must have been referring to Sakura.

But if Sakura was the reason why the people in the village were still alive, why did it seem like some of the villagers hated her?

And where in the village are the Anbus she came with at that very moment?

"There's a statue in the middle of the village," Sakura said. "You'll be able to see it from Dr. Kaitaro's front door. It's a statue of a tree carved from stone. They carved the names of the villagers who died from the plague, on that statue. The statue stands on the earth where they buried the ashes of the deceased villagers."

Sasuke looked down at his food. "The Anbus?"

Sakura smirked and closed her eyes, recalling the faces of the Anbus. "When we were sure that the illness was gone, a group in the village began blaming us for the plague," she began.

Sasuke looked up and raised a brow at her.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "They said that the only reason why we were able to save the people was because we were the ones who made the illness," she said. "We concocted the virus so we knew how to kill it. They said we infected the village so the villagers would seek our help and let us in. The village rarely entertained guests, you know."

"Hn," Sasuke said. He just had a lecture about it that morning.

"They said Konoha sent us to plunder their village resources," Sakura said. "They told the villagers that we were there to conquer their village."

"And they believed it," Sasuke said, sounding like he muttered the word "stupid."

Sakura sighed. "They had lived with each other for quite a while," she said. "That and the doctors began to get sick."

Sasuke raised his brows at Sakura.

"They contracted a strain of the illness," Sakura said. "…A stronger one. It caused more harm in the body than the strain that infected the villagers did. It killed the doctors. The only one who didn't get infected was Dr. Kaitaro who, the group blaming us said, had pure blood. You see, Dr. Kaitaro was a member of the family who headed the village. And the members of the group that blamed us were members of that same family. They also did not get infected with the disease."

Sasuke stared at Sakura. Kaitaro and his family were immune to the disease?

"It wasn't the case though," Sakura said looking grimly at her food. "I've checked that theory well. It did not have anything to do with the genes that people had. I made the pill without the help of Dr. Kaitaro's blood."

Sasuke waited for Sakura to continued but she closed her eyes and didn't speak.

"What caused the illness?" he asked.

Sakura shook her head. "I'm here to find out about it," she said.

"And the Anbus?" Sasuke asked.

"You'll find their names on the stone tree," Sakura said.

Sasuke's eyes went wide.

Sakura opened her eyes and looked down at her food. "They were infected with the stronger strain as well," Sakura said. "The one who sculpted the tree believed in our innocence and secretly etched their names there in honour of their bravery and heroism."

"The Anbu captain ordered Jiro-kun to lay low and stay with me before he died," she added. "They already had a theory on how the disease began. But exposing it at the time seemed more dangerous than keeping it. The plague had enticed several power-hungry nations and they sent ninjas to uncover the truth about the disease. The captain made it top priority to keep the other ninjas away."

"You and Jirotaiku didn't get the disease," Sasuke said.

"We ran away from the village," she said. "They didn't know we were here."

"Why didn't you go back to Konoha?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura smiled. "It seemed like the best idea," she said. "A new mission opened up and we were the best ninjas for the job."

"What mission?" Sasuke asked.

"The mission to equip the village and Konoha with enough knowledge to save its people from the epidemic in case it came back," Sakura said.

"The scroll," Sasuke said.

Sakura nodded.

"Why write it here? The epidemic is gone."

Sakura sighed. "It's not," she said. "So I suggest you stay low when you visit the village next time," she said as she slowly crawled to the corner where she wrote the scroll.

"_They were infected with the stronger strain as well."_

"_Akio here is one of the village's high guards. We don't receive guests too often so he doesn't have enough experience when it comes to receiving guests."_

"_We have secluded ourselves from the world down the mountain so much that not many people here are even aware of the existence of ninjas."_

"_Just making sure he's not going to spread some plague…"_

"_She did not spread a plague! She saved everyone from the plague! She saved everyone here from the plague!"_

"_Shut your mouth or I'll cut your tongue!"_

"_He is new here. He knows nothing of our village's laws."_

Sasuke glared at the table as he looked back at his memory.

"The group that blamed you," Sasuke said.

Sakura looked at Sasuke and watched him carefully. He looked stiff…probably angry at something. "The group leads the village now. Their chief is the son of the village leader who died before the plague began - Mori Houren."

Sasuke clenched his fists. That meant Akio was part of the group.

Sakura's face softened. "Sasuke," she called.

But Sasuke seemed to be too deep in thought to hear her.

"Sasuke."

No response.

"Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke stiffened.

Did she just call his name with a '-kun?'

Sasuke slowly turned his head to look at Sakura.

He froze. She looked worried. For the first time since he met her again, he saw a Sakura that resembled the Sakura in his memories.

"Stay low," Sakura said softly. "I mean it."

Sasuke just stared back at Sakura, but she felt how Sasuke agreed to do what she wanted him to do.


	10. Chapter 10

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing the previous chapter! Any theories so far on what's going on in the story? ^ _v

_I know gifts are supposed to be given in Christmas, but I missed it. So since New Year's coming, I'll just make this a New Year treat (if this **is** a treat). _

_Advance HAPPY NEW YEAR to YOU!_

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><p>Sasuke walked down the snowy road that led to the doctor's clinic.<p>

It was early morning and the village was still asleep.

Sasuke kept his eyes at his surroundings.

He left Sakura awake in the house. She was already up and writing on her table when he woke up. And just like before, Sakura spent the night sleeping slumped on her table.

Sasuke told her about the doctor's request that he help out in the clinic and she advised him to go there early in the morning so the people didn't suspect much about where he spent the night in.

Hence his early trip to the village.

Sasuke spotted the door to the clinic and noticed the 'closed' sign hanging from a nail on the door frame.

He walked closer to the door and raised his fist to knock on the door. But before his fist touched the wood surface, he remembered the tree sculpture that Sakura mentioned to him.

Sasuke dropped his hand to his side and decided to look around for the statue. And sure enough, he spotted an odd-looking tree top from where he stood.

He walked down the road with his eyes fixed on the tree top. Unlike the tall pine trees surrounding the village, the tree looked like a grey cherry tree.

Sasuke followed the twists and turns of the road until it led him to what could only be the village square. At the middle of the empty road intersection was a tall stone tree that was partly covered with snow. It stood on a brick stand that had a gold plate fixed around it.

He also saw a shadow kneeling in front of the tree. He walked closer and noticed that it was Kaitaro. He held a bunch of small purple flowers.

Kaitaro softly traced one of the engravings on the tree. He bowed his head and after a moment kissed the spot that his fingers touched. He then placed the flowers on the brick stand of the tree.

Sasuke watched him take a deep breath before turning to face him.

"Sasuke-san," Kaitaro said surprised at seeing Sasuke.

Sasuke kept his eyes on the tree. "That's the memorial?"

Kaitaro watched Sasuke for a moment before he smiled. "Yes," he said. "Come. Let me introduce you to my wife," he said reaching his hand out to Sasuke.

Sasuke walked toward Kaitaro and slowly noticed the engravings on the tree.

Sakura was right. The tree was made of stone and names were engraved on it.

Kaitaro pointed to one of the names on the tree – the one etched on the part of the tree that he kissed. "This is my wife, Kei," he said smiling warmly at the engraving.

The name read, 'Kayuki Kei'. It was etched on a branch.

Sasuke bowed his head in respect and noticed the flowers on the stand. They weren't just purple flowers. The center of each flower was yellow.

"Those are Crocus flowers," Kaitaro said. "They bloom in winter."

Sasuke looked at Kaitaro and saw how sad his eyes were despite the warm smile on his face.

"Kei loved spring," he said. "She loved that season because of how nature always came alive in it. But since she married me, all she saw was snow. She didn't tell me about it but I know she missed spring. She lived down the mountain, you see. So I looked for Crocus flowers and made her a garden. I even made her a pond with fish that could survive icy waters. Unfortunately the fish weren't that beautiful. But they were good for food. Kei was very happy when she saw them. And she especially loved those flowers."

Sasuke looked at the tree again, reading the names in the hope of recognizing the names of the Konoha Anbus who's ashes were buried beneath the sculpture.

"They are here," Kaitaro said pointing to the highest twig of the tree.

Sasuke looked at it and noticed that the twig had three names engraved on it, but the script used made it look more like a design on the twig.

And unlike the other parts of the tree where a handful of names decorated its surface, only the three names occupied the twig.

"Their ashes are not under this tree," Kaitaro said.

Sasuke looked at Kaitaro.

Kaitaro smiled at Sasuke. "Sakura-san wanted them to go home," he said. "He ordered Jirotaiku to take their ashes back to Konoha after they died."

Sasuke looked at the names on the twig again. He did recall a day when the Anbus left him alone. That must have been the day when they buried the three's remains in Konoha.

If his theory was right, the three died eight or nine months ago.

He read the names and tried to recall it. One name rang a bell – the captain's. He recalled hearing the name when he was in jail. He was one of the Anbus who guarded his cell.

"Have you taken your breakfast?" Kaitaro asked.

"Hn," Sasuke answered.

Kaitaro chuckled. "Come help me prepare for Keiko's breakfast then."

Sasuke took one last glance at the tree before he turned away. He froze upon realizing what he saw in that last glance he took.

He looked back at the tree and read the names that he quickly spotted.

"Is there something wrong?" Kaitaro asked.

Sasuke looked back at Kaitaro. "It's nothing."

The two then walked away from the tree.

For a moment there, Sasuke thought he read Sakura's name on the tree.

* * *

><p>Sakura sighed as she crawled on the floor wincing at the burning pain she felt all over her body.<p>

Tears streamed down her cheeks.

Those were times she wished she didn't send Jirotaiku away.

Sakura curled, turned and twisted on the floor - trying to find the position where the pain would slightly go away.

Sure that Sasuke was in the village, she let herself break down and cry.

Sakura remembered the times when she felt that way. She would hear Jirotaiku's booming voice from outside.

"Sakura!" he called as he landed his feet on the porch. He saw her curled and sobbing on the floor. "Sakura! What happened?" he asked as he quickly knelt down beside her and held her shoulders to tell her he was there.

One look at Sakura's pained face and Jirotaiku knew what was wrong.

His face turned hard. He gently pulled Sakura to his chest and lifted her from the floor. He then ran outside to the pool of snow he made and slowly sunk themselves in the snow.

"No, idiot!" Sakura cried out – her head buried against Jirotaiku's neck. "You'll die of hypothermia!"

"Shut up and just tell me when it's not that painful anymore," Jirotaiku yelled back.

Sakura shakily held on to Jirotaiku's arms.

Jirotaiku closed his eyes and recalled the technique he learned in meditating on ice.

After a minute or so, Sakura shakily looked up at Jirotaiku.

"Le…Let's g-go b-"

Jirotaiku got off the pool of snow and quickly walked into the house. He immediately pulled out thick kimonos from the bedroom and made Sakura sit on the floor.

He then undressed her and replaced her clothes with the new ones he took from the room.

Sakura felt how warm her cheeks were.

Jirotaiku pulled her back to his chest after dressing her up. "Can I change them now?" he asked – his breath tickling her neck.

Sakura nodded.

Jirotaiku slowly let her go and took a box of medical supplies from the room.

Sakura watched Jirotaiku prepare what he needed.

"I-I'm-m s-so-rr-ry," Sakura whispered.

Jirotaiku sighed. "You don't say sorry to someone who cares for you when he's caring for you," he said.

Sakura smirked. "Ke-eep th-that up-pa an-d a-I m-might j-ju-h-st f-fall f-for-r y-you," she said.

Jirotaiku looked up at him with his usual bored stare and smiled. "I'll be doing this to you everyday then."

Sakura winced as she fell back to the reality that she was alone and curled on the floor of the house. Tears slid down her face.

If she forced herself to sleep, she could lose track of time. Sasuke might find her on the floor.

No.

She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.

She would survive it. She would survive it and Sasuke won't know a thing…not yet.

* * *

><p>Sasuke wrapped a bandage on the arm of a middle aged wood cutter.<p>

He had been bandaging wounds and administering medications since the clinic opened. And he was lucky that a group of wood cutters had a little accident in the woods.

"Thank you," the man he was bandaging said smiling at him. The man looked a little older for his age and he wore a smile on his face despite his incomplete set of dentures. "You know pretty miss flower?" he whispered.

Sasuke raised a brow at him.

"Ah," he said bowing his head. "She used to work here. She saved me. You look nice like her so I thought you know her."

Sasuke realized who the man was referring to.

"The doctor's previous assistant," Sasuke said, trying to act like an average man. "I don't know much about her."

The man sighed. "I see," he said. "You know, you also look like her boyfriend."

Sasuke felt something inside of him twitch.

…Boyfriend?

"He's just a bit more talkative," the man said smiling at Sasuke. "And he has really bright hair. They're really an odd pair – Miss Flower with pink hair and her boyfriend with yellow and red hair. I can't imagine what their children would look like."

…Why on earth would they even have children? They were just boyfriend-girlfriend. They weren't married!

Sasuke looked away and kept his glare fixed on the first aid kit beside him.

"Done," he told the man.

"Ah! Thank you," the man said looking at the bandage on his arm. "You're very good! What's your name again, young man?"

"Sasuke," he muttered. He couldn't use 'Uchiha' because though people were not supposed to know about ninjas, it was still possible for them to hear gossips about criminals bearing the Uchiha name.

The man smiled. "Sasuke-sama, thank you," he said.

Sasuke looked at him for a moment before he replied with a nod.

The man then stood up and walked to the doctor who had just finished talking with another wood cutter.

Sasuke decided to clean up. He picked up the bloody cotton balls and bandages that he used to mend the man and headed to the trash bin.

He felt the chilly air hit his face the minute he stepped out of the clinic.

Sasuke sighed and dropped the trash into the bin. He then looked up at the grey sky.

So Sakura was romantically involved with Jirotaiku. That would explain the "-kun" she used for his nickname…and the loss of the "-kun" from Sasuke's name.

Sasuke felt his chest grow numb. He winced and looked down at the trash bin.

Was it really that much of a big deal? Sakura could have been involved with Jirotaiku when she took care of him in prison.

…Hence the hostility…the distance…the silence.

Sakura had moved on. She had gotten over her infatuation for Sasuke like those girls who used to devote themselves to him.

Sakura had found someone who could love her the way Sasuke couldn't. She had met someone who would care for her, who would protect her, who would give up his life for her…

Sasuke glared at the bin as the numbness in his chest grew.

If Jirotaiku was the man who cared for her, why did he leave her alone? If he protected her, why did he leave her there in that house without enough traps set up around as her line of defense? If he would give up his life for Sakura, why was he not there to do so?

Sasuke closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Maybe he left for the sake of the mission…But he still left Sakura out in the open! He sacrificed Sakura for the sake of completing a mission!

Sasuke opened his eyes and shook his head.

He was turning into Naruto.

That was not good.

Why should he care if Sakura was involved with someone anyway? Why should he care if her boyfriend left her to die?

Sakura **chose** to be with the idiot. She should accept the consequences on her own.

Sasuke felt the numbness grow more.

Sasuke sighed and held his chest.

He needed to calm himself down if he wanted the numbness to go away. But wasn't he calm already? He didn't care about Sakura! He didn't care about how the man he chose seemed to dump her in the middle of a mission. He didn't care about how pained Sakura was when she heard about Jirotaiku's condition!

…Now where did that come from?

Sasuke shook his head. It seemed that the more the numbness grew, the more emotional he got – the more un-Sasuke-like he became.

It needed to stop. Could Sakura know something about what was happening to him? Could she cure him?

"Sasuke-san?" Kaitaro called from the back door of the clinic.

Sasuke turned to face him.

"Is everything alright?"

Sasuke nodded and walked to the clinic.

Kaitaro sighed. "I heard how Tou-san told you about 'miss flower'," he said.

"Sakura and Jirotaiku," Sasuke said.

Kaitaro nodded. "We don't have any patients now," he began. "I suppose since you knew the memorial statue, Sakura-san has filled you in about some of what you wanted to know."

"Hn," Sasuke said looking at the doctor.

Kaitaro walked into the clinic. "Come, I'll make us some tea," he said. "I'll also tell you what I promised to tell you."

* * *

><p>Akio coughed out blood as he hung head first from the ceiling.<p>

He had been swaying from the ceiling since they got back to the castle after that trip in the market. Blood and sweat slid down from the gashes on his back and chest. He was sure his face was swollen and bloody.

He heard a click from the iron door of the dungeon room that he was in. He watched a man in white robe walk in.

"H-Hou-ren," Akio whispered.

"I suppose you've learned your lesson," Houren said staring down at Akio.

"Y-yes," Akio answered.

"Put him down," Houren said. The chains that held Akio tightly from the ceiling slowly snaked away from his limbs.

Akio fell down with a loud 'thump' on the floor.

Akio took several deep breaths after sighing in relief.

Houren turned to go.

"W-Wait," Akio weakly called.

Houren paused but didn't spare him a glance.

"He…He c-could be from K-Konoha," Akio said.

"I didn't say he couldn't be," Houren replied.

Akio looked up at Houren. "W-Why…Why p-punish m-e then?"

"To teach you to be patient," Houren said turning to Akio and glaring at him.

Akio cringed and looked away.

"My order was clear," Houren said. "Leave the visitor alone. Act the way you did earlier, and the people will turn against us!"

Akio bowed his head. "M-My…ap-pologies…"

Houren kept his glare at Akio. "He knows where Sakura is, just as much as the doctor," he said. "But he doesn't know much about everything **yet**. They're keeping him blind for a reason."

"W-What do we d-do now?" Akio asked.

"We wait," Houren said. "I've already sent sentinels to spy on him. And do what I told you to do. Make sure our scholars uncover all the techniques that Jirotaiku learned how to use."

"What if J-Jirotai-k-ku didn't conceal Sak-kura?" Akio asked. "W-What if they r-really left?"

Houren sighed, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Can you really not think?" he asked. "He won't gain anything in transporting her anywhere far!" Houren shouted. "And he's here!"

Akio winced and bowed his head lower.

"She's finishing the scroll," Houren said. "Jirotaiku won't take her anywhere far."

"W-what if w-we t-torture the v-vis-sitor?"

Houren turned away. "Useless," he said. "We tortured Jirotaiku to death and he didn't speak a word. Even if he wasn't rescued, he was willing to die to keep Sakura's whereabouts away from us. What makes you think this visitor would be any better? Besides, I have a feeling that he's more dangerous than Jirotaiku. He resembles someone."

"…S-someone?" Akio asked looking up at Houren.

"A renowned ninja who tried to destroy the whole village of Konoha after killing a legendary sanin," Houren said. "That reminds me. Go tell Roku to give me a report on the Uchiha clan that I asked him to do a research on."

"Will do," Akio said.

Houren then walked out of the dungeon.


	11. Chapter 11

_First fanfic chapter upload for 2012! Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing Scroll. And I hope you all enjoyed that "treat." Do tell me if you got pissed off at it _* . *

_Anyway, here's another chapter. Please feel free to tell me any comments or questions about it. I'm also open to reading suggestions for it. THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE ! _^ _ ^

* * *

><p>Sakura looked up at the grey sky.<p>

It was early morning and the others were still asleep. She decided to walk out to the porch for some fresh air.

She noticed the hue of the sky. It had been that dark since they arrived in the village.

"The doctor said it's always gloomy here," Sakura heard someone say from behind her.

She turned around and saw Jirotaiku looking up at the sky as well.

"You should be resting," Sakura said.

Jirotaiku opened his winter kimono and showed her his beautifully toned chest and torso. There was a faint line stretching from the side of his left breast to the right of his abdomen. "It's closed," he said.

Sakura glared at him. "It doesn't mean you can take the bandage off," she said before she walked closer to Jirotaiku and gently touched the faint line with her finger tips.

A faint green glow slowly sparked from her fingers.

Jirotaiku quickly grabbed her hands and pushed them away from his body – his eyes glaring at Sakura. The faint glow in her finger tips vanished but he kept his tight hold on her hands.

Sakura gasped at Jirotaiku's sudden response. She looked up and glared back at him. "What is wrong with you? Let go of my hands!"

"You're committing suicide," Jirotaiku said gripping her hands tightly in his.

"I'm healing your wound!"

"I'm not your Uchiha!"

Sakura stiffened and stared confused at Jirotaiku.

Jirotaiku's face remained serious. "I'm not your Team 7 team mates," he said. "I know what kind of hell you're in."

Sakura remained staring confused at Jirotaiku. "…Hell?"

Jirotaiku harshly pulled Sakura from the edge of the porch. He covered Sakura's mouth with his hand to keep her from making too much noise before he pinned her against the nearest wall.

Sakura struggled to get away from him but before she could hurl a nasty kick at him, his free hand had ripped her top open.

She gasped in shock as she felt the chilly air touch the space between her breasts, down to her heaving abdomen.

She fearfully watched Jirotaiku's face…his apathetic face that at that moment looked pained at her.

They stared at each other for a moment before Jirotaiku let her go and gazed down at the skin that he exposed.

Sakura's eyes were moist with tears. She watched Jirotaiku's face react to what he saw.

…Disgust…Anger…Regret…

Sakura could see so many negative emotions across Jirotaiku's face despite the minute changes in his expression.

Jirotaiku looked at Sakura's pale eyes for a moment before he slid his hand into the top that he tore open.

Sakura felt chills run up her spine as the heat from Jirotaiku's hand and arm snaked around her slightly exposed waist.

He pulled her against his chest. He pressed her against him and closed his eyes.

Sakura could feel her cheeks burning. Not only could she feel the heat radiating from Jirotaiku's body. She could also feel his chest...his heart…beating against her.

"Jirotai-"

"Jiro," Jirotaiku said. "You're so cold."

Sakura looked away. She was sure her face was scarlet. "Just that part," she said.

Jirotaiku smirked and slid his hand up to her bare back. "Hm, you're right," she said. "And I tore your undergarment."

Sakura glared at nowhere. "You'll buy me one later today."

"Only if I see one in the market," Jirotaiku said.

Sakura hit his torso playfully. "You **will** find one," she snapped.

Jirotaiku's body shook against her, and she soon heard him laugh.

Sakura smirked.

It was the first time that she heard him laugh.

Jirotaiku gently pulled away from her.

Sakura looked up at his face. He was smiling – really smiling.

"You weren't disgusted?" Sakura asked.

Jirotaiku raised a brow. "Were you disgusted when you saw my battle scars?"

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "It was horrible," she chided.

Jirotaiku glared at Sakura.

Sakura chuckled. "But no, I wasn't disgusted."

Jirotaiku smirked. "Why then did you ask me if I was disgusted?"

Sakura looked straight into his eyes. "Because this isn't a battle scar," she answered. "And you're not me."

Jirotaiku sighed and pressed his forehead against hers. He closed his eyes. "Those are more than battle scars," he whispered. "Those are greater and more honorable than battle scars." He opened his eyes and looked deep into Sakura's pale ones. "If there's one thing I wanted to do when I first saw those, it was to take those away from you."

Sakura looked away, shutting her eyes and hiding the tears that slid down her face.

But he already knew that she was crying. He pulled her back to his chest and held her there until Sakura stopped crying.

Sakura chuckled as she wiped her moist eyes. "You sexually abused me and survived," she said. "This will ruin my record."

"I just ripped your clothes," Jirotaiku said, shrugging his shoulders. "I haven't exactly marked you as my own yet."

Sakura glared at him. "I'd rather die than let you do that to me."

Jirotaiku sighed. "That bastard of an Uchiha should see this," he said. "Men would die to be in his place."

Sakura rolled her eyes and covered herself with her arms. "That's not making me change my thoughts about you," she said turning away.

"Surely your body has needs," Jirotaiku said watching Sakura walk to the door.

Sakura turned and sent him an icy glare.

"I'm open to having a physical relationship," he said with his bored apathetic face on.

Sakura's cheeks flushed in embarrassment. "You're lucky I'm freezing."

Jirotaiku smirked and walked to Sakura – the top of his kimono sliding slowly down his arms. "Yes, I'm very lucky you are," he said.

Sakura gasped in surprise.

"Jiro-"

Sakura snapped her eyes open.

She found herself curled on the cold floor.

Yes. She fell asleep while she was trying to crawl out to the porch.

She sighed and slowly tried to sit up. She felt the icy air touch her shaky limbs. It was then that she realized where she was – the porch.

"This would be the most stupid move you've made," Sakura heard a man say behind her.

Sakura sighed and slowly sat up in a more comfortable position. "Hello to you too," she said. "Thanks for the help."

The man looked at Sakura through the corner of his grey eyes. "You sent your guard away and had that idiot replace him," he said.

"He's not an idiot," Sakura said. "It's not his fault that no one told him."

"Ha!" the man said. "And it's not his fault that ignoramus spell affected him."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I'm really grateful for the help you gave me," she said. "But I can't tolerate your attitude toward him."

The man shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't expect you to tolerate it," he said. "I just wanted you to know how stupid you are for sending Jiro away."

"He was having second thoughts on accomplishing the mission," Sakura reasoned.

"Because he's human," the man said standing up from his place beside Sakura. "This one is a monster."

"Sure," Sakura muttered watching his white fur cape rise from the floor. She noticed how his braided white hair reached the level of his waist.

The man looked down at Sakura. "You said it yourself," he said. "He's no longer the human you knew."

"He wasn't the **person** I once knew," she corrected. "But he's still human, I assure you."

"Physically?" he sarcastically asked. "Don't make me laugh."

Sakura chuckled. "Look, it's not like I asked for him."

"Who asked for him then? Jiro?" the man said raising a brow at Sakura in disbelief.

Sakura sighed. "I doubt he did," she said. "I bet he begged them not to send **him** as his replacement."

"Why is **he** here then?" the man asked. "As much as I love how interesting things are now with him around, I still don't think having him here to finish the mission is good. The ending to this story is so predictable now."

Sakura chuckled. "The hokage probably sent him," she said. "I don't know how she was convinced to do so, but he knew nothing about the mission before he came here so he couldn't have volunteered to be here."

The man sighed and looked out at the snowy forest. "I'm still hoping Jiro would come here."

"Sorry to break your bubble, but that is impossible," she said. "From what he told me, they tortured Jiro well enough to make him unconscious in the hospital 'til this very moment."

The man shook his head. "I'd have to go to Konoha to have my desired ending then," he said.

Sakura chuckled. "Just accept it," she said. "I'm winning this bet."

The man looked down at Sakura. "I'm staying faithful to my bet," he said. "After all, you did say he's still human."

"Physically," Sakura said. "So don't expect too much from him. You'll just end up disappointed."

The man sighed and looked out at the forest. "Now I really miss having Jiro around."

Sakura laughed.

* * *

><p>Sasuke sipped the hot cup of tea that the doctor prepared for him as they sat across each other on the dining table of the main house.<p>

Keiko went out to play with her friends so they had the house to themselves.

The doctor stood up and lit a couple of incenses in a corner. The smoke smelled like lavender.

He then sat down across Sasuke again and listened to the silence echoing in the dining hall.

"What did she tell you?" Kaitaro asked as before he drank from his own cup of tea.

"There was an epidemic here a year ago," Sasuke answered. "You and the other doctors requested guards from Konoha; Konoha offered assistance in the medical research; Sakura came up with an oral vaccine; you cured everyone; they turned against the people who helped save their lives; a new strain of the epidemic affected the doctors and the ninjas that were with Sakura."

"And the memorial tree," Kaitaro said.

Sasuke kept his eyes on his tea. "Your wife died."

Kaitaro nodded. "I see."

Sasuke looked up at the doctor and waited for him to speak.

"Not everyone turned against Sakura-san and her team," Kaitaro said. "There are still a number of us here who believe that they were innocent – that they were our heroes. But Sakura-san ordered us not to express our thoughts about them to anyone in the village. She asked us to stay silent when the others accused them of falsehoods."

"And you just did it," Sasuke muttered.

"One of us was brave enough and didn't do it," Kaitaro said. "He got sick with the new strain and died."

Sasuke stiffened.

"_Stay low," Sakura said softly. "I mean it."_

Kaitaro watched Sasuke's face and smiled. "She warned you already," he said. "That's good."

"You didn't get the disease," Sasuke said. "You and your relatives didn't get the disease."

"I didn't," Kaitaro said. "But Keiko did."

Sasuke raised a brow at Kaitaro.

"She was one of the patients that Sakura-san cared for," Kaitaro said. "She was in the brink of death. Kei and I couldn't cure her and we had lost hope of ever getting her back. But Sakura-san found a cure. She did everything to save Keiko."

Sasuke recalled how energetic and cheerful Keiko was and wondered what she looked like when Sakura cared for her.

He just couldn't imagine her in a death bed.

"The fact that Keiko almost died from the epidemic was proof that my genes had nothing to do with the sickness," Kaitaro continued. "That, and the results of the tests we ran. And our previous leader, my uncle, died of the disease so the supposed immunity that our clan had could not be possible."

"He died from the epidemic?" Sasuke asked. "I thought it was only after his death that the epidemic came out."

"That was also what we thought," Kaitaro said.


	12. Chapter 12

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing Key, especially to Timber Wolf of Purity and kekedia! Your questions helped me check on the loose ends of the story. I'll be answering your queries in the next chapters so others could also see what you wanted to know (the answers were written on the chapters I am yet to upload, you see _^ _ ^).

_Here's another chapter for Scroll. Please read and review. And again, feel free to ask or suggest anything in the story. Tah!_

* * *

><p>Tsunade stood beside the hospital bed where Jirotaiku lay unconscious. She watched his chest heave for air.<p>

She remembered the last time she saw him awake.

It was supposed to be Jirotaiku's second visit to Konoha. His first visit was after the three Anbu ninjas who went with them in the mission died. He went back to Konoha with their ashes. It was there that she learned the state of the mission.

It was there that she changed the mission at Sakura's request.

"…I will be sending Jirotaiku back to Konoha after five months," Tsunade read Sakura's note for the tenth time that day, but this time in the hospital entrance instead of her office. It was a note that Jirotaiku brought to her on his first visit. "If he doesn't reach Konoha by then, send out an Anbu to fetch him," the note said.

Sakura wrote a particular location where Jirotaiku would be if it happened. And when Jirotaiku didn't reach Konoha on the date Sakura said he should, she closed her eyes and sent out a team of Anbu ninjas.

At that moment she received a report that the group of Anbu ninjas she sent were on their way with Jirotaiku.

And they requested to proceed to the hospital due to their condition.

It was almost midnight. And sure enough, the team arrived shortly after Tsunade slipped Sakura's note back into her pocket. They arrived with Kakashi carrying two unconscious Anbu ninjas. The Anbu captain that led the team half-carried a conscious but wounded Jirotaiku.

The medics quickly put all of them on stretchers and wheeled them into the emergency room.

"…They were…impossible," the Anbu captain told her as the medics wheeled him in.

"What do you mean?" Tsunade asked.

"The jutsus," the Anbu said as he tried to ignore the pain caused by a broken rib, a sprain on his leg, a deep gash on his side and a bleeding wound on the side of his face. "We've…never seen… It's all different…"

Tsunade stiffened. "Did you find him there?"

"Yes," the Anbu said, wincing at the pain he was feeling. "Tortured," he added.

Tsunade nodded. "We'll patch you all up. I'll just talk to Jirotaiku."

The Anbu nodded.

She quickly followed Jirotaiku's stretcher.

His face was blank but his lips were nearly purple. Sweat dripped down his face. His eyes were rolling dizzily every ten seconds.

"Jirotaiku," Tsunade said, gripping his arm.

He saw her and fixed his eyes on her.

"Don't send him," he said almost breathlessly as they wheeled him into the emergency room. There was blood all over his swollen and bruised face. His torso, arms, and legs had deep stab wounds that were still bleeding.

"Don't send him," he said as he grabbed Tsunade's hand with his bloody and pale one.

Tsunade stiffened at how cold his hand was.

"Calm yourself, Jirotaiku," Tsunade said calmly, thinking that he was delirious with the pain.

"Don't send him," he whispered weakly – tears streaming down his cheeks. "Please..."

Tsunade froze and stared at Jirotaiku.

She knew him as someone who was similar to Sai. He was just slightly more 'able' when it came to the ability to feel emotions than Sai. And he was the selfish type like Sasuke. He acted for himself. He acted to reach his personal aims.

She received several reports and heard numerous rumors about female team mates falling for him while on a mission because of how he took care of the people he worked with. But right after the mission, he would ignore them all – forget they existed. The only time he remembered them was when he worked with them again.

Anbus saw him as a jerk – a genius jerk that they couldn't undermine or disrespect because he was an asset to anyone who worked with him.

'Attachments are strings that tie you down to limitations'– that was what he always told her when she discussed the reports to him.

So to see him weep and beg that way…plead…was it just the physical trauma?

Tsunade administered the anesthesia as soon as they reached the operating room.

"Ho-k-kag-ge-sama," Jirotaiku said as the anesthesia Tsunade injected into his veins began to kick in. His hand shivered against Tsunade's arm. "I b-beg y-you. I'll g-go b-back-k to S-Sak-ur-ra. I'll s-save h-her-r…"

Fear and despair flooded Jirotaiku's eyes.

After a moment or so of staring confused at him, Tsunade noticed his eyes droop.

Then he fell into unconsciousness.

And he lay asleep since then.

Tsunade sighed as she stared at him.

He was in a coma. After treating his wounds, they realized that he was also suffering from a very high fever.

The wounds were made with poisoned blades – poisons that they had never seen or heard of.

The Anbu ninjas recovered. They gave her a scroll from Dr. Kayuki Kaitaro who helped them escape. It had a letter from Sakura and vile of liquid that according to her note should be given to Jirotaiku if he had a particular set of symptoms.

Tsunade saw the symptoms on Jirotaiku and quickly injected the contents of the vile into his body. It made him stable despite the presence of the poison in his blood stream.

A month or two – that was how long the medicine would work. And according to Sakura's note, the scroll she was finishing would contain the cure for his condition.

Tsunade sighed.

She didn't know if she did the right thing.

With Jirotaiku unconscious and the situation in the village getting worse, Sakura was in great danger. She needed someone to help her. And since Sakura did request to have a ninja sent to replace Jirotaiku's place in the mission, Tsunade sent out a replacement – **the** replacement.

"I sent him," she said knowing that only the unconscious Jirotaiku could hear her. "I sent him despite your plea. I sent him, and now I'm afraid I made the wrong decision. I should have heeded your plea. I should have sent someone else – Sai perhaps. Sasuke is just too perfect for the mission. I'm afraid he'll really finish the mission."

* * *

><p>"Sakura-san asked us to let her exhume the body of our previous leader," Kaitaro said.<p>

Sasuke sat watching Kaitaro intently. He had never imagined Sakura exhuming a corpse. Those years really changed her.

"We had the Anbu ninjas steal the body from the crypt one night," the doctor continued. "We were all told that he died of a heart attack. His doctor, a friend of ours, confirmed it before he got sick of the epidemic and died. But when we exhumed his body, we found traces of the symptoms of the illness. His face was spotless, but the rest of his body was full of lesions. Are you familiar with leprosy?"

"Yes," Sasuke answered.

"The illness causes lesions similar to those found in lepers," Kaitaro said. "They start as red spots on the skin. Left untreated, these red spots grow and multiply into huge red patches that look like burn marks. Then they grow into blisters that bleed profusely. At times these blisters appear more like swollen patches of skin that explode after a certain time. We saw scars and wounds similar to that on our deceased leader's body."

Sasuke leaned back a little. "…And his heart..?"

"It was some of the organs that were in a fair condition," Kaitaro said. "We don't exhume or embalm corpses here, you see. We only bury bodies in the snow inside a cave that we use as a graveyard."

"By fair condition, you mean his heart didn't seem to have experienced a heart attack," Sasuke said.

"That is correct," Kaitaro said. "Based on our findings, he died of asphyxia – suffocation. The disease doesn't only affect the skin. It also affects internal organs. The same lesions were present in most of his organs and his respiratory organs were the organs that suffered the most."

Sasuke folded his arms over his chest. "Drowned?"

"You can say that," Kaitaro said. "We found traces of carbon in his respiratory track and lungs. He was most likely forced to inhale smoke until he choked. His lungs were too damaged to sustain his body with enough oxygen. Our guess is that he was already weak and dying when he inhaled the smoke."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "The lesions you described," he said. "They're similar to burns."

"Yes," Kaitaro said. "They are burns of various degrees. And what's puzzling is that the burns manifest even in the internal organs, causing hemorrhage and eventually death to someone infected with the disease."

"So your patients feel like they are being burned," Sasuke said.

"Yes," Kaitaro answered. "At first the red spots feel itchy. When the red spots grow into patches, the stinging sensations begin. They describe it as something similar to exposing your skin to a candle's flame. What makes it terrible is the fact that the patches occupy most of the body – usually the limbs first before the chest and torso. Once one red patch begins to sting, the other patches sting. They feel like being seared."

"Then the patches swell into blisters," Sasuke said.

Kaitaro nodded. "The skin swells with the pain," he said. "At one point, the skin will swell to resemble warts or even tumors. And they burst, causing extensive bleeding. The same process happens internally. If they survive it, they go through the next stage of the illness – their bodies experience decay."

"…Decay..?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura didn't tell him about anything decomposing alive. Well she didn't exactly tell him about the illness much, did she?

"We don't know how it happens," Kaitaro said. "But for some reason, the skin undergoes active decay. Bacteria, something that the weather here in our village should be able to slow down if not kill, feed on the skin. We even find maggots in the skin ruptures just hours after the skin bleed."

Sasuke raised a brow at the doctor. "Maggots..?"

Kaitaro sighed and looked sadly at his cup of tea. "We couldn't explain it," he said. "And none of the medicines we knew could cure it. We couldn't prevent the red spots from appearing, the patches from swelling…We couldn't save people. We made investigations on how it began. The only conclusive thing we learned was that people woke up one morning with very high fever and red spots on their skin."

Sasuke looked away in thought.

The red spots on the skin were usually caused by blood clots. Surely the doctors have checked the possible influence of the weather to what had happened. And Sakura would have checked it when she did her own investigation. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to find a cure.

"_Stay low," Sakura said softly. "I mean it."_

Sasuke looked up at Kaitaro. "So your previous leader was the first to die from the disease," he said. "Who were the next ones?"

"The elders," Kaitaro answered. "We figured it was because of their age." He then took a glance at the incense that he lit in the corner.

Despite its obvious length, it was already almost used up.

Kaitaro's face grew grim. "I'm afraid this conversation is over."

Sasuke raised a brow at Kaitaro before he turned to look at the incense.

It was dying.

"Come," Kaitaro said standing up from his seat. "I will teach you how to treat severe skin burns."

Sasuke looked back at Kaitaro.

Did the doctor just perform an illusion genjutsu?


	13. Chapter 13

_So sorry for the late update. I just got back from the hospital from a family emergency. Anyway, thank you all again for reading and reviewing 'Scroll.'_

_I understand that this story doesn't have any romantic scenes for Sasuke and Sakura, and many of you might be hating Jiro-kun for those scenes he had with Sakura, but I hope you forgive me for those. _

_After all, this story is yet to be finished. But if all this is too disturbing to read for you to continue, that's okay. I really appreciate the effort you put into reading the chapters I wrote for this story. :)_

_Here's another chapter for Scroll. I hope you give this story a chance. I'm not saying it's going to be a romantic SasuSaku story in the end. But I'm not saying it won't be either. _

_I try to twist my plots (not change it entirely though, sorry) according to the responses and suggestions I get for the chapters. So if you think you have an idea that would make this better, do tell me. Or if you want to clear something up from the story, don't hesistate to ask me about it. If the answer isn't written in the next chapters, I'll directly answer your query. _* v *

_I hope you enjoy this next chapter!_

* * *

><p>"How is the visitor?" Houren asked as he drank his tea.<p>

It was past noon and he decided to spend his time in his room.

The village, as usual, had been quiet and he saw no reason why he shouldn't spend the rest of the day drinking tea in his quarters.

"He is in the clinic, assisting the doctor, my lord," a man kneeling down by his window said – a white cape covering him from head to toe.

It was the first time in days that he was ordered to report to the head of the village.

"Hm," Houren said sipping his tea. "And have they spoken about things here in the village?"

"They talked about the plague, my lord," the man answered.

Houren eyed him with curiosity.

"The doctor told him that an illness struck the village," the man continued. "...That he lost his wife in the epidemic."

Houren narrowed his eyes. "And..?"

"He said visitors came in the same time that the plague came," the man said. "And that the people became wary of visitors ever since."

Houren glared at the man. "You're sure no jutsu was used on you?"

"The visitor didn't do any hand seals, my lord," he said. "And his chakra levels remained stable and inactive. "

Houren grunted. "And you say he stays in the doctor's quarters," he said.

"I followed him, my lord," he said. "He didn't leave the village."

Houren sipped his tea. "Go and make yourself useful," he muttered.

"Yes, my lord," the man said before he vanished into the shadows.

Houren heard someone chuckle from his window. He turned and glared at the man wearing a fur coat who suddenly sat on the ledge of his window.

"You're spying on a visitor?" the man said playing with his long braided hair. "Aren't you being too paranoid?"

"Do you have anything to do with this?" Houren asked, gritting his teeth.

"Me..?" the man asked as he jumped down to stand on the floor and straightened his white fur coat. "What would I have to do with that?" he said chuckling at the thought.

Houren kept his cold glare at the man. "You better not have anything to do with this matter," he said. "Because if you do, I swear you will **never** be able to exist in this world."

The man laughed. "Is that a joke?" he asked. "You have me under ball and chain. I am under your command and control. How would I meddle with these matters? And I know what you are capable of. Why would I do anything to upset you?"

"You better tell me the truth," Houren said.

The man sighed and rolled his eyes. "Is this about the cure again?" he asked. "How many times do I have to tell you that I didn't tell that Sakura person anything about the disease or the cure? It's not my fault she was smart enough to find the cure."

"She's a ninja!" Houren shouted angrily. "Such knowledge should not be available to them!"

The man smirked at Houren. "Houren, dear, geniuses exist in the world," he said. "Otherwise, the word 'genius' wouldn't exist in **your** world."

Houren glared more at the man. "I am not fooling around with you!"

"Nor am I, fooling around with you," the man said smiling confidently at Houren. He then turned to the window and climbed up to stand on its ledge. "I told you then, and I will tell you once more," he said before he turned his head and glared coldly at Houren. "Your greed for control will kill you…**very **soon."

Houren threw his cup of steaming tea at the man, but the man vanished before it could hit him.

The cup crashed into pieces on the floor.

Houren hurled his fist on the table.

No. He wasn't going to die because of Sakura, like the man in the fur coat told him two years ago.

Sakura was going to die.

She would die before she would get the chance to kill him.

* * *

><p>Sasuke was putting the bandages back in the cabinets when he noticed a set of quills on the doctor's desk.<p>

The doctor had finished teaching him the basic steps on treating burns and handling severely wounded patients. They had the crash course because according to the doctor, there were villagers who still had wounds from the epidemic infection that needed treatment. And since he was supposed to be his assistant, he would be handling some of the work in case they came to the clinic in groups.

The quills on the doctor's table looked oddly similar to the quill that Sakura used in writing the scroll.

But the doctor didn't seem like he used the quills at all. In fact Sasuke didn't see the doctor using the quills when he wrote notes to his patients or took note of diagnoses in his records.

He used a brush.

So why keep quills that many? And why was Sakura using a quill when people in the village seemed like they used brush for writing?

Kaitaro walked in with a pile of scrolls that he placed down on his desk – just across where Sasuke was.

"You use those quills?" Sasuke asked.

The doctor looked up and noticed how Sasuke eyed his table. He looked down and stared at the quills on his pen holder.

"Oh," he said. "No. I prefer using brushes. That's a gift from a patient of mine. He was a merchant who passed by our village a couple of years back. He fell ill and I helped him recover. He gave us those quills as gifts before he left the village. I keep it because it looks nice on my desk."

Sasuke looked up at the doctor again. "You gave one to Sakura?"

Kaitaro raised a brow at Sasuke and chuckled. "To Sa-"

He then remembered someone else he knew who noticed the quills on his desk. He looked down at the quills and tried to recall who it was.

"Quills?" Jirotaiku asked as he stood by the doctor's desk.

It was early morning and Jirotaiku went to the clinic to ask papers from Kaitaro since Sakura was about to use up all her own stash, for the scroll she was writing.

Kaitaro was pulling papers from his desk when Jirotaiku asked him. He looked up at him before he looked down at the quills on his desk.

"Yes," he said. "Those are gifts from a patient of mine. I think they look good on my desk so I keep it there."

Jirotaiku looked apathetically at the doctor. "So you don't use them?"

"No," Kaitaro said, chuckling. "It's too light and thin for my hands. Their made of raven feathers, you see."

Jirotaiku took one of the quills and examined it. "But if a brush is too heavy for anyone, this quill will be a good tool for writing, correct?"

Kaitaro stared puzzled at Jirotaiku. "Yes," he answered. "I suppose so."

Jirotaiku looked up at the doctor. "You have five in your pen holder. Mind if I take one as my own?"

Kaitaro scratched his head. "Well you can have one, yes. I don't use them anyway."

Jirotaiku nodded and slid the quill in his hand into the pouch that was tied around his waist. "Have you found the papers I'm asking for Sakura?"

"Ah yes! Yes, it's here," Kaitaro said handing Jirotaiku a pile of white paper from the drawer in his desk.

He didn't think Jirotaiku would be interested in writing tools.

Kaitaro's lips formed a straight line as he thought about the question that Sasuke asked him.

"So she uses it now, yes?" the doctor asked Sasuke.

Sasuke didn't answer.

Kaitaro didn't seem to know that Sakura had a quill.

Kaitaro sighed. "I gave her one, yes," he said knowing that lying about it was the best thing to do. "She said she wanted to try using a quill for a change."

Sasuke didn't respond. He just looked away and closed the cabinets.

Sakura wasn't supposed to have the quill. She also wasn't supposed to use it.

Why did she have it? Who gave it to her? Why was she using it?

* * *

><p>Sakura finished her notes with her signature.<p>

She suddenly felt a sting in her hand. She winced and let the quill go, smudging ink on the paper while she was signing her name.

The quill fell on the floor.

Sakura shut her eyes and took several deep breaths.

It was happening more frequently than before – the stinging sensations in her hands. At one time, her hand felt too stiff to move. It took her minutes just to write down a character.

Sakura sighed.

"Let me just sign my name," she muttered before she slowly reached out to pick the quill up.

She shakily held the quill again and held its inked point on the paper.

Her hand was shivering, not only from the cold but also from the pain she was feeling. Suddenly, holding a writing tool felt too strenuous for her.

"Just my name," she muttered as she slowly wrote down her name.

She was able to write her name down but it looked more like she wrote it using her other hand - the hand that didn't know how to write.

Sakura sighed and put the quill down on her table. She then slowly crawled out to the porch.

She was sure the pain would grow worse. Her limbs would hurt soon and she wouldn't be able to move.

Sakura slumped on the cold floor once she reached the porch. She wasn't in her destination yet but the pain was starting to spread throughout her body so she needed to take a breath.

She sighed.

After a breath or two, she crawled to the edge of the porch and slowly sat herself up, dangling her feet out of the porch so she could sink it in the snow.

She faced the pool of snow where she usually sunk herself in.

Unfortunately her limbs were too stubborn to let her move freely, and her nanny was out unconscious in the hospital miles away from her.

Sakura sighed. "At least you're home," she said facing the horizon beyond the pool of snow.

The pain growing in her legs turned to coldness. She shivered as the icy air hit her skin.

The cold turned into numbness in no time.

Sakura stared at the black and white forest before her. She imagined how it would look like if she jumped from the porch to one of the tree branches – if she jumped from one branch to another and continued doing it until she reached the end of the icy forest.

She imagined the green leaves passing by her eyes as she went on to the end of the path. She saw herself reaching the shore and pumping chakra in her legs upon reaching the water.

She ran hastily on the water surface, aiming for one thing, and one thing alone.

After running on the water surface for a time, she noticed an island. She hastened her pace and soon reached the shore. She ran passed the woods, the village, the forest, the road…She ran quickly until she spotted the gates of Konoha.

Tears slid down Sakura's shut eyes.

* * *

><p>It was almost dark when Sasuke walked home to the house where Sakura stayed.<p>

He carried a bag that held the soup Keiko cooked for Sakura. He remembered how Keiko glared at him as she ordered him to take the soup to Sakura.

He didn't even know why he did what the toddler told him.

Perhaps it was more for the sake of the doctor than of his daughter...Or for his own sake. It was a hassle to cook after all the things he did in the clinic.

He took his time in walking up the snowy path.

Sasuke looked around occasionally for anyone. For some reason, he hadn't encountered any ninjas trying to kill him or even spy on him.

He found it odd of course. But he had to admit that he was enjoying it.

After a while or so of walking up the snowy slope, he spotted the house – warm light glowing from its windows…and door..?

Sasuke grew alert and sped up his pace. He saw more details of the house as he came nearer.

Its door was wide open. And the space where Sakura usually stayed in was empty.

Sasuke suddenly grew tense.

Did something wrong happen? Did ninjas find the house? Did they attack her?

Did they kidnap her?

Sasuke quickly rushed into the house.

He pounced on the porch, threw the bag of food he brought, on the floor and frantically looked around, only to find Sakura sitting on the side of the porch that faced the woods.

She was in an old thick kimono – her hands, wrapped in knitted half-finger gloves, flat on the cold wooden floor of the porch.

Sasuke slowly walked to Sakura noticing how still she was.

Was she hurt? Was she in shock? Was she put under an illusion?

Was she…

...Was she alive?

He walked stealthily toward her, standing beside her to see her face.

Her eyes were closed. Her face was peaceful.

"Sakura," he called.

She didn't respond.

He noticed how pale she was – how purple her lips were.

He knelt down and noticed that her feet were buried in the snow.

Sasuke's eyes grew wide in panic. "SAKURA!" he called grabbing her shoulders and pulling her close to face him. He raised his left hand to hold her cold face.

She felt cold. Too cold.

"Sakura! Sakura!"


	14. Chapter 14

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing Scroll! _

_I'm glad that a lot of you appreciate Jirotaiku's character in the story. I know it's hard to accept that he has more "romatic" scenes with Sakura, but I thank all of you for still reading this story. I also noticed that some of you are wondering about his relationship with Sakura. Hopefully this next chapter will help you a little with figuring it out._

_Do tell me though if it's still confusing and I'll see what else I can do to help you ^ _v ^ _So here's another chapter. Please don't hesitate to tell me what you think about it! _

* * *

><p>Sakura winced.<p>

"Oi," she heard a familiar voice say. "Wake up, old hag."

Sakura winced again but slowly opened her eyes.

Everything was dark and blurry but she could make out someone sitting in front of her - someone smirking at her.

"You're hair is on fire again," she said, her vision becoming clearer than before.

"And your hair is dripping with pink paint," the man sitting in front of her said. "And here I thought you were writing a scroll with blank ink. So how's that painting of spring of yours going?"

Sakura smiled. "It's going great," she said. She then looked around her. Everything was just black. Even the place she sat on was black.

It was as if she was floating on nothing.

"This void of yours is...well. Void," she said.

He glared at her. "It wouldn't be like this if I didn't have to pull you out from limbo,"he said.

Sakura raised her brows. "You pulled me out from limbo?"

He rolled his eyes. "You drifted off to limbo and you didn't know? You're hopeless. How's my cure going?"

"It will get to you on time," Sakura answered chuckling. "I'm just refining the procedure on how to make it. The ingredients are complete. I just need to figure out the right formulations. They'll be able to extract the poison from your body on time."

The man nodded. "And is...Is he...Is he taking care of you?"

Sakura smirked. "He doesn't know anything...or he doesn't know anything much yet."

He raised a brow at Sakura. "What **does** he know?"

"He knows that I'm writing a scroll about a disease that swept the north," Sakura answered. "He knows that it's important to Konoha and that other ninja villages are after it. He knows that he has to take it to Konoha once I'm finished writing it."

The man's eyes narrowed. "The mission, then, for him is to take the scroll to Konoha?"

Sakura nodded. "He's been asking questions," she said. "He knows about the plague now. But...I still haven't told him much about what's going on."

His eyes softened. "When are you planning to tell him everything?"

Sakura looked down at her hands. "I...don't know. I know I have to tell him everything. But if I tell him everything..." She looked up at the man. "I would also have to tell him all of it. I'm not afraid of how he'll react to it. Heck! I **know** how he'll react. That's why I'm keeping him with me but...I...I just don't know **how** to tell him..."

He smirked. "You still have your will to live," he said. "You're still hoping."

Sakura shook her head. "That's not it," she said. "You don't understand."

"I do understand," he said. "Sakura, I love you. I know things have to happen and they will happen, but I still hope that those things don't happen. I still hope that it changes...That I can change it somehow."

Sakura smirked. "So you really weren't kidding about that, huh?"

"Trust me," he said sighing. "You're not the only hoping that I'm kidding about that."

Sakura laughed. "Are you sure I'm not just inside some-"

"Tsukuyomo?" he asked smirking. "You think Uchiha's behind this?"

Sakura looked around again. "Well I don't see a red moon anywhere so I doubt it's Tsukuyomo," she said smiling. "I was thinking that I'm inside a dream, actually."

He smiled. "Well what do you know? The great Haruno Sakura dreams about me telling her I love her! I **knew **you were into me."

Sakura glared at him. "You're getting over your head again, you perverted jerk! Wait. Is that really what your name - Jirotaiku - means? ...'Perverted jerk'?" she teased.

Jirotaiku chuckled. "That's very creative of you, darling," he said. "I doubt that's true though."

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "It suits you though," she said smiling brightly at him.

Jirotaiku sighed as he gazed at her cheerful face. "...And I still love you," he muttered.

Sakura looked down at her hands again. "Jiro-kun, I-"

"Don't," Jirotaiku said.

Sakura looked up at him.

"Don't say it," he said. "I know what you're going to say so don't say it."

"But I-"

"No, you don't," Jirotaiku said. "The love you have for me is different from the love I have for you, and you know it. Hearing you say that, no matter how good your intention, is embarassingly painful to me. I know you can't care for me the way I care for you. So you don't have to say it."

Sakura smirked. "I really don't understand why I'm still in love with him," she said.

Jirotaiku shrugged his shoulders. "Everything happens for a reason," he said. "I think I'm like this because I fooled around with so many women in the past. Now I get to feel how they felt - trapped in a one-sided love affair."

Sakura frowned. "I don't remember fooling around with someone before," she said.

Jirotaiku shrugged his shoulders again. "Maybe you just don't remember. Uzumaki was crazy about you before, right?"

Sakura scowled. "So this is my punishment for not choosing Naruto over Sasuke?" she asked. "But Naruto and Hinata are...well. You know. I can't do anything more about that now!"

Jirotaiku chuckled. "You're right," he said. "Maybe the reason isn't Uzumaki."

Sakura raised a brow at him. "And what is..? Sasuke is?" She rolled her eyes.

Jirotaiku then looked up.

Sakura raised a brow at him. "What is it?"

"Someone's pulling your consciousness away," he said.

Sakura's face turned serious. "You said I drifted off to limbo..?"

Jirotaiku glared at her. "Yes, you did, idiot," he said. "You almost died if I didn't pull your consciousness out of it!"

Sakura frowned. "If I almost got to limbo...How are you doing this?"

Jirotaiku rolled his eyes. "And here I thought that Uchiha at least told you what happened to me," he said. "I'm in a coma. And I can only reach those whose consciousness are in the same plane as mine is."

Sakura smirked. "So you're also close to limbo now?"

"Close, but not that close," Jirotaiku said smirking back. "I'm still waiting for that cure of yours."

Pain suddenly burned in Sakura's shoulders.

She winced in pain.

Jirotaiku sighed. "So impatient," he muttered.

Sakura felt the pain spread to her arms. She bit her lips from screaming out loud.

She opened her eyes and got a blurry vision of Sasuke's face.

"-kura! Sakura!" she heard him exclaim.

She closed her eyes again to clear her vision.

"Sakura, why are you here?" she heard him snap angrily at her.

She opened her eyes and saw a clearer vision of Sasuke.

His face was full of anger, panic…and concern.

For a moment Sakura thought she was looking at Jirotaiku's face.

"I was looking around," Sakura said weakly. "I needed a change of…atmosphere."

Sasuke glared at her. "Move."

Sakura sighed and looked down at her legs.

...Typical Sasuke.

She pulled her feet up but it felt too numb, heavy, and weak. It was then that she realized how frozen they were.

No wonder she drifted off to limbo.

Hopefully she hadn't paralyzed herself just yet.

Sasuke grunted angrily and took Sakura in his arms.

Sakura bit her lips from wincing.

She felt the heat from Sasuke's body warm her. She felt his heart pound frantically inside his chest.

So burying her legs in snow was the way to get Sasuke to hold her in his arms! She wished she had known about it earlier.

Sasuke walked into the house and shut the door behind him.

Sakura was so light. He didn't expect her to weigh that less. Perhaps it was the layers of clothing that kept her from looking extremely thin.

Sasuke sat her down in a corner. "What do I do with you?"

He hated asking anyone about what to do but he didn't have a clue on how to treat frostbite in that degree.

Sakura looked at the kitchen. "Fill that bucket over there with water. Heat water in the kettle and pour it in the bucket," she said motioning her head toward the tools Sasuke needed. "Make sure the water in the bucket is at body temperature after you pour the hot water on it."

Sasuke stood up and pulled out a thick blanket from the bedroom first before he proceeded to heating the water.

Sakura noticed the bag of soup on the floor while Sasuke impatiently used his Katon no Jutsu to start the fire.

"Is that Keiko's soup?" she asked.

Sure that the water was being heated, Sasuke stood up and picked up the bag of soup. Luckily, the bag was wrapped in layers of cloth.

Sakura chuckled. "Thank you for bringing it," she said.

Sasuke didn't respond. He took a pot and poured the soup in it. He then placed it on the fire beside the kettle.

After preparing the warm water, he pulled out a chair from one of the bedrooms. He lifted Sakura from the floor and made her sit on the chair.

He then pulled the bucket beneath her and lifted the end of her kimono to see her legs.

They were covered with a thick pair of socks. He gently placed his fingers on the socks to pull it off her legs.

"NO," Sakura shouted.

Sasuke looked up at her.

"Don't take it off," she said. "It's frozen. I do not doubt your skills but I can't feel anything so I can't assure you that you won't be able to hurt my legs when you pull those off."

Sasuke looked down at her legs. Her feet were covered but it looked stiff.

"Just soak it in the bucket," Sakura said.

Sasuke did what she told him, carefully lifting her legs and placing it into the bucket of warm water.

"You'll have to replace that water with another bucket of warm water once it's cold," she said.

Sasuke didn't respond but he heated another kettle of water. He also prepared Sakura a bowl of soup.

"Eat?" he mumbled at Sakura as he offered the soup to her.

…Another question. It was then that he decided to ask the doctor to teach him how to deal with frostbites in case Sakura became stupid enough to immerse herself in snow again.

He had a feeling Sakura had been doing it for quite a while before he came to the village. She didn't seem bothered at having her limbs frozen that way.

"Yes," Sakura answered, knowing well what he meant.

She was enjoying the innocent image Sasuke had at that moment.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to hold the spoon though," she said.

Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes.

If she hadn't slept on the porch in the first place, it wouldn't have happened.

Sasuke pulled out another chair and sat next to Sakura so he could spoon-feed her.

Last time he checked, this was not part of his mission. But he couldn't, for some odd reason, just throw the soup on Sakura and force her to eat on her own.

Sasuke watched Sakura sip the soup from the spoon.

She looked far different than what he remembered. She looked older, thinner, and weaker. If he didn't know better, he would say she was sick.

Or perhaps she **was** sick. She just wasn't telling him the truth.

Sakura noticed how Sasuke stared at her.

If he did that to her years ago, she would have gone berserk.

But it happened at that time – when things were already far too different.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked Sasuke.

Sasuke raised a brow at her.

"You were staring," Sakura said.

Sasuke raised both brows.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "The water's cold."

Sasuke put the cup of soup down and changed the water in the bucket. He then took his place beside her and continued to, embarrassingly, spoon-feed her.

Sakura didn't seem to care though. She ate as if it was normal. She didn't even seem to realize she was being fed by Uchiha Sasuke.

Sasuke looked away.

Was he missing the Sakura he knew? Didn't he enjoy the Sakura he was with at that moment – the Sakura that saw him as an average human being? The Sakura that didn't hover, that didn't swoon…that didn't care about his actions..?


	15. Chapter 15

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing Scroll! You all really inspire me to continue writing.* _v_ *  
><em>

_Nice questions you got there, Reignashii-san!_ _I really like to answer your questions right now but I've already written the answers on the future chapters. Those questions you raised helped me make sure that I don't skip those YOU, Reignashii-san!_

_And thank you all for understanding Jiro-kun now ^ _v_ ^ I was really afraid the previous chapter would make matters worse for Jiro-kun's image, hehe.  
><em>

_Anyway, here's another chapter of Scroll. Sorry for uploading late. I had a small accident and I couldn't do much with just one hand ^ _v_ ^. I hope you enjoy this one! _

_Do tell me what you think about it. And again, feel free to raise those questions and guesses you have about the story. _

_THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH AGAIN AND CHEERS TO EVERYONE!  
><em>

* * *

><p>"Why?" Sasuke asked, his eyes fixed on the bowl of soup in his hand.<p>

Sakura stared at him. "…Why..?"

Sasuke looked up at her. "…Suicide?" he muttered.

Sakura stared at Sasuke for a moment before she burst into chuckles. "So it looks that way, huh?" she said.

Sasuke glared at Sakura.

No one laughs at Uchiha Sasuke!

Sakura calmed herself and smiled at Sasuke…She smiled the smile Sasuke remembered from her - that smile he thought he would never see.

But she looked so different. Even with that smile on her face, she looked sad.

"I'm Tsunade's apprentice," she said. "I've mastered cell regeneration. So even if I get severe frostbites, it will all heal in a moment or two after it thaws."

Sasuke looked down at the bowl of soup again and stirred it.

"So why?" he asked her.

"Haven't I already answered that?" Sakura asked raising a brow at Sasuke. "I wanted a change in at-"

"So you bury your feet in snow and fall asleep outside knowing you could freeze to death?" Sasuke cut in, looking into Sakura's pale green eyes.

Sakura stared at Sasuke's eyes.

He was…worried..?

She sighed and looked away. "Well I didn't exactly plan on falling asleep there," she said. "I just wanted to see the view."

"Seeing the view involves burying your feet in ice?" Sasuke snapped glaring at Sakura.

He wasn't stupid. Something was up and he knew he was being kept in the dark about it.

Sakura looked unfazed at Sasuke. "I told you I can recover from frostbites."

"You'll risk losing your limb in ice just because you know you can get away unscathed with it?" Sasuke snarled.

Sakura sighed. "Look," she began. "I'm sorry you have to do all these things for me. I didn't do this so you can be my slave. You think I don't feel humiliated by all of this? I'm in my twenties and you're spoon-feeding me like I'm some lame paralyzed woman who can't fend for herself!"

Sasuke gripped the bowl tightly and glared hard at Sakura.

That wasn't his point.

Was it really that hard to ask her **why** she sat out there in the cold, feet in the snow and all? Was he the only one there who thought it odd that anyone would do such a thing just for the sake of 'changing the atmosphere' she or he was in?

"Are you sick?" Sasuke calmly asked her, holding back the urge to yell at her.

Sakura looked incredulously at Sasuke. "What..? You think I'm insane because I fell asleep out there?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" he yelled.

Sakura glared at Sasuke. "If you think I'm keeping you here so you can get sick, you're wrong!" she yelled back. "I didn't even want you here! I wanted Jirotaiku to be here, **not** you!"

Sasuke felt the numbness in his chest again.

He threw the bowl of soup on the floor and stood up. "Tell your Jirotaiku to feed you then!" he shouted before he marched out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

Sakura gazed at the door and waited for Sasuke to walk away from the house.

It didn't take long for his chakra signature to vanish within the range of the house.

Tears slid down her cheeks.

She could feel an intense pain in her chest.

"I'd do that if I could, believe me," she whispered, her shoulders shaking. "I'd do that because you shouldn't take care of me like this. You shouldn't be here. You don't **deserve** to be here," she said, her voice breaking.

She bowed her head and let her tears stream down her face. "I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun," she said slowly raising her stiff hand to her chest. "I'm so sorry... But everything is different now."

Green light glowed from her hand.

"I want to go back," she said as she felt her insides twitch. It was as if the green glow in her palm sucked everything inside her out. Sakura winced. "...But I can't," she whispered. "I can only...I can only move forward...I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun..."

* * *

><p>Sasuke stood in the dark snowy forest. He glared at the tall tree in front of him.<p>

_The man sighed. "I see," he said. "You know, you also look like her boyfriend."_

_Sakura spared him a bored glance. "Jiro-kun is the one who's in charge of putting up defenses here," she said. "I think some of his traps are still working. I'm supposed to finish the scroll on time, you see."_

"_He's just a bit more talkative," the man said smiling at Sasuke. "And he has really bright hair. They're really an odd pair – Miss Flower with pink hair and her boyfriend with yellow and red hair. I can't imagine what their children would look like."_

"_Sasuke," Sakura called. _

"_I'll be honest with you," Sakura said. "I didn't expect that the Hokage would send you here. I was hoping to see Jiro-kun or…"_

"_Jirotaiku," Sasuke corrected. _

_Sakura ignored it. "Jirotaiku's been with me since the mission began," she said. "He knows what to do while the scroll isn't finished."_

"_Jirotaiku's in the hospital," Sasuke said recalling what Naruto told him. _

_Sakura froze. _

"_He was ambushed on his way back to Konoha," Sasuke said. _

_Sakura's face softened. "How is he?" she asked – her voice faint and weak. _

_That was Sakura. That was the Sakura he knew! _

"_I…I don't know," Sasuke answered. _

_Sakura nodded and slipped her apathetic face on. _

_The man sighed. "I see," he said. "You know, you also look like her boyfriend."_

"_What does he do here?" Sasuke asked. _

_Sakura stopped writing and looked up at Sasuke – brows raised. _

"_I'm here," Sasuke said. "What does he do?"_

_Sakura's face softened. "Sasuke," she called. _

_But Sasuke seemed to be too deep in thought to hear her. _

"_Sasuke."_

_No response._

"_Sasuke-kun."_

_Sakura sighed. "Look," she began. "I'm sorry you have to do all these things for me. I didn't do this so you can be my slave. You think I don't feel humiliated by all of this? I'm in my twenties and you're spoon-feeding me like I'm some lame paralyzed woman who can't fend for herself!"_

"_Sasuke, that you?" Sakura's voice echoed from a far._

"_Sasuke," she said.  
><em>

"_If you think I'm keeping you here so you can get sick, you're wrong!" she yelled back. "I didn't even want you here! I wanted Jirotaiku to be here, not you!"_

Sasuke hurled his fist on the tree, creating a hole on its trunk that eventually cracked the tree in two.

He could feel the numbness grow in his chest. He could feel his body grow tense in anger.

But why was he angry?

So Sakura didn't want him. Wasn't that what he had always wanted? Why feel upset about it?

Was he even upset at the idea of Sakura swooning over another man?

Sasuke shut his eyes and sat down on the snow.

He felt so hollow and numb. He wanted to kick something, destroy something, **kill** something…He knew he was angry but he couldn't command his body to move and release his angst the way he wanted to.

Sasuke felt his eyes moisten.

Was he crying? Why? Crying is only for the weak.

And an Uchiha is **not** weak.

Sasuke wiped his eyes.

He remembered Sakura's face – her green eyes that had turned a pale shade of emerald, her lively face that grew tired and apathetic…the Sakura who devoted herself to him and the Sakura who devoted herself to a man Sasuke only knew by name.

He felt more numb and hollow. It was as if his heart, his lungs…his air passages were frozen.

He couldn't breathe.

Sasuke took several deep breaths before he forced himself to stand.

Sakura wasn't important. What was important to him was the scroll that she wrote.

There was no reason for him to feel concern about how she reacted toward him.

She could die for all he cared. He was there to take the scroll she was writing, back to Konoha.

He wouldn't shed a tear for her. He was there to free himself from his probation.

She chose to devote herself to a weakling, she should suffer the consequence of doing so.

Sasuke glared at the severed tree.

"She was stupid! She chose Ji-...She chose that…that WEAKLING! She was an idiot! I've always KNOWN you were an idiot!" he snarled kicking the tree.

He felt the numbness in his chest grow worse...his vision blur.

Sasuke bit his lip and closed his eyes.

He lost her.

He lost her to a man who, he was sure, was weaker than him – who couldn't make a chidori like him, who couldn't wield a katana as skillful as he did, who couldn't command lightning the way he could, who couldn't protect her the way he…

Sasuke shook his head and buried his face in his hands.

There was something terribly wrong with him and it was making him insane.

Sasuke took several deep breaths as the numbness in his chest made his lungs feel too heavy and burdened to move.

He wiped his eyes.

They were wet.

He took one last deep breath and straightened his back.

He was letting his emotions take control of his actions. Though he hated to admit the fact that he was upset about the relationship that existed, or the lack of it, between him and Sakura at that moment, he was on a mission and missions always came first.

Besides, such matters were irrelevant in his life. Sakura was just a former teammate of his.

…An annoying former teammate of his.

"Six years and you're still annoying me," Sasuke muttered.

He sighed and forced his legs to move.

His mission was to take the finished scroll to Konoha. And if the scroll had to be finished, that meant that Sakura had to be capable of finishing it.

Sasuke decided to walk back to the house.

He wasn't supposed to be offended by what happened. He took his time in walking.

When he reached the house, he noticed that the light inside was a little glum.

The snow was falling and the wind was too forceful for his liking.

Sasuke sighed and walked to the house.

He reached for the door and froze.

Sasuke couldn't hear anything coming from beyond the door. And he could barely feel Sakura's chakra signature.

He stared at the moment.

...Was Sakura still there?

Yes. She couldn't leave. Her legs were frozen.

Frozen.

Sasuke stared at the door.

He left her with her legs submerged in a bucket of water. How long has it been since he marched off the house?

Sasuke stiffened.

Did the water freeze in the cold and freeze her legs again?

Sasuke winced and slapped his forehead.

"Idiot," he muttered.

He opened the door and quickly looked for Sakura.

Sasuke's eyes went wide.

Sakura was still on the chair – her feet in the bucket of water – unconscious and extremely pale.

Sasuke quickly took the bucket of water away from her legs.

The water was already chilly. He immediately changed the water with a warmer one – not noticing how muddy water dripped on the floor from her drenched feet.

He placed her limbs back in the bucket and checked her temperature.

Sasuke felt his heart panic.

Sakura was cold – **ice** cold.

"Sakura!" he called, holding her face in his hands in an attempt to warm her.

She remained cold and unconscious.

Sasuke's limbs were shaking.

Heck! His whole body was shaking.

"Sakura," he called, his voice trembling. "No, Sakura, come on! Wake up!"

Sasuke grabbed her shoulders. He tried to wake her the way he did just hours before.

But this time, Sakura didn't respond.

She didn't wake up.

Sasuke held her tightly against his chest.

He left her. He left her there without even trying to make sure she didn't get worse.

"Sakura! Sakura, wake up! Sakura, this isn't a good joke! WAKE UP!"

He could barely feel her heartbeat against his chest. Even her chakra seemed too low to sustain her life.

Sasuke took her in his arms and ran to the bedroom. He laid her down on the floor and hastily put out a futon. He carefully made her lay down on the futon and covered her with several quilts and blankets to warm her.

He had no idea what else to do.

...But the doctor should surely know.

Sasuke bit his lips.

He would have to leave Sakura again.

"Wait for me," Sasuke told her, his breath bouncing against her pale cheeks. "You hear me, Sakura? WAIT FOR ME! WAIT FOR ME, DAMMIT! DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME WHILE I'M AWAY!"

He then ran out of the house, shutting the door behind him.

A man slowly emerged from the shadows – his fur coat gliding on the floor.

"Well that was stupendous of you, cherry blossom," he said, kneeling down by Sakura's side. He pulled up his sleeve and placed his right hand over Sakura's chest.

Green light glowed from his right palm.


	16. Chapter 16

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing Scroll! I was really flattered on that remark you gave, _Helter Skelter^ v ^( _I also like your name!) and _Aphrodite's double_! Those reviews from the readers I didn't mention here made me slightly guilty for what the Sasuke in my story is going through...just slightly, hehe! _^ v ^

_Anyway, here's another chapter for Scroll. Do tell me what you all think about it! _

* * *

><p>Kaitaro examined Sakura's unconscious form.<p>

She was extremely warm, contradictory to Sasuke's description of her when he came to the clinic and literally snatched the doctor away from his office.

Kaitaro's face turned grim. "She'll need some antibiotics," he said. "I left them in my clinic." He then turned to look at Sasuke. "You know where they are."

"Hn," Sasuke replied.

"Take some of the intravenous antibiotics," Kaitaro said. "The ones in the top most shelf of the cabinet. Get three of them. Don't forget to get the IV tubing set."

Sasuke nodded slightly and vanished.

Kaitaro sighed.

Hopefully he would take **some** time to find the IV materials. With his speed, Kaitaro feared he would get back in the house in not time.

He turned to sit beside Sakura and began taking off her clothes and bandages – a set of topical medicines and new bandages close beside him.

"You and I will need to talk, young lady," he told her. "So wake up once I'm done changing your bandages."

Sakura didn't answer. She was still deeply unconscious.

"I'll wake her up once you're done," a man said, suddenly emerging from the shadows – his fur coat gliding on the floor.

"Ah," Kaitaro said glancing at him. "I was hoping you're here. I need a hand."

The man rolled his eyes and sat down across the doctor. "I wonder when I'll get tired of lending a hand to people," he said.

Kaitaro chuckled. "I'm betting you never will," he said.

The man smirked at Kaitaro. "How much are you willing to give in exchange for that exactly?"

* * *

><p>"What are you doing?" Keiko asked as she stood by the door of the clinic watching Sasuke rummage through the medicine supply cabinets.<p>

Sasuke ignored her.

All that mattered at that moment was Sakura's health.

"Did something happen to Onee-chan?" she asked.

Sasuke bit his lips.

Keiko might want to go with him to the house to make sure Sakura was alive.

"Where is Otou-san?" she asked, looking around the clinic.

Sasuke was muttering curses because he couldn't find the IV tubing set.

"Are you looking for the IV fluid administration set?" Keiko asked innocently.

Sasuke took a deep breath and sighed.

He wanted to snap at Keiko for eating up his time but the kid had a bigger chance of locating the IV tubing set that he at that moment did.

He turned to look at Keiko – a scowl on his face. "You know where the IV tubing set is?" he asked, trying hard to be polite.

"I'll get it for you," Keiko answered, immune to the frightening scowl on his face. "Tell me why you need it because I need to take note of it in Otou-san's records."

"Your Otou-san asked me to get it," Sasuke spat.

"For..?"

"…An IV fluid administration."

"Patient..?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned around to look for it on his own.

There was no point in wasting time.

"You're wasting more time in looking for it in a place where it isn't stored in," Keiko said.

Sasuke cursed and turned to look at Keiko. "Listen, kid," he said gritting his teeth and glaring at her. "This is a life and death situation."

"This is for Onee-chan, huh?" Keiko asked unfazed. "Did she collapse again?"

Sasuke stiffened.

Sakura had collapsed before?

"Well..?" Keiko asked. "I'm not going to help you unless you answer my question."

Sasuke frowned. "Hn," he said.

Keiko rolled her eyes. "I'll take that as a 'yes,'" she said turning away from him. "The IV tubing set is this way," she said.

Sasuke followed her.

They went to another room that resembled a small storage room. It had shelves with piles of boxes on it.

Keiko went to one of the shelves and pulled out a box.

"Relax," she said feeling Sasuke stand anxiously by the door of the storage room. "I bet the Snow Spirit has already given her some first aid."

Sasuke raised a brow at her.

"Snow Spirit..?"

Keiko nodded, pulling out one of the many sealed packs of IV tubing sets. "The Snow Spirit always helps people in the snowy forest," she said. "And he has helped Onee-chan many times before you came here."

Sasuke felt more puzzled.

Was that why Sakura didn't look pale anymore when he arrived in the house with Kaitaro? Someone already helped her?

Keiko put the box back and handed the IV tubing set pack to Sasuke. "Take your time," Keiko said. "Otou-san's already there, right?"

Sasuke took the pack and turned away.

* * *

><p>"What exactly were you thinking?" Kaitaro asked Sakura as she weakly looked at him. "You were lucky <strong>he<strong> was here to help you."

"I was in pain," Sakura sleepily said.

"You've ran out of pain killers?" Kaitaro asked.

"I can't take much of them anyway," Sakura said. "I'll get immune to them in no time."

Kaitaro's face saddened. "That's how bad it is," he said.

Sakura chuckled. "It's nothing death can't cure," she said.

Kaitaro scowled. "Don't say that," he said. "You'll just put all Sasuke-san's effort to save you to waste?"

"Doctor, you and I both know that's not why he's here," Sakura said.

Kaitaro sighed. "I was hoping," he said. "He looked really frightening when he fetched me from the clinic. He looks far scarier than usual when he's worried."

Sakura chuckled. "He's worried I won't finish the scroll," she said.

Kaitaro smiled sadly. "I don't think he had the scroll in mind when he sought for my help," he said. "When I was on his back and I asked him to describe your condition, he was all over the place. And his tongue seemed to get stuck when he tried to say, 'looked like dead.' He couldn't quite say the word 'dead,' let alone think about it without muttering curses and leaping more dangerously than ever in the woods. I thought we would crash and die in the forest."

Sakura smirked. "Don't get your hopes up," she said. "This is Uchiha Sasuke we're talking about, not Jiro-kun."

Kaitaro's face turned serious. "Either way, you need his help," he said. "And you **will** need his help whether you like it or not."

Sakura looked away. "I was hoping to stay independent for a bit longer."

Kaitaro sighed. "You can't hold a brush anymore."

Sakura raised a brow at him.

"Jiro-kun asked for one of my quills," Kaitaro explained. "Sasuke-san noticed that my quills resembled the one you owned."

Sakura smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't know it was yours."

Kaitaro shook his head. "What matters to me is the fact that you can't hold a brush anymore," he said. "The wounds you have on your arms are far worse than I last saw them."

* * *

><p>Sasuke didn't listen to what Keiko told him to do – take his time in going back to the house. He leaped from tree branch to tree branch, the IV set and medicine secured in a bag behind him.<p>

He was still haunted by that extremely pale and lifeless image of Sakura.

He sighed as he slowed down to a walk on the snow. He was near the house and he could see the warm light glowing from behind its shut windows.

He walked noticing how calm the atmosphere was. But he kept his chakra hidden just to be safe.

Perhaps Keiko was right. Sakura was okay.

He slowed his pace and thought about what Keiko said about Sakura.

Collapse..? So Sakura **was **sick.

Was it the plague?

"_If you think I'm keeping you here so you can get sick, you're wrong!" she yelled back. "I didn't even want you here! I wanted Jirotaiku to be here, not you!"_

Sasuke winced.

Damn that thought. It was causing his chest to grow numb again.

He took several deep breaths.

If Sakura was sick, she would tell him. Why wouldn't she do so? They were both Konoha ninjas in a foreign land. They should trust and rely on each other.

Wasn't that what teammates did?

Oh wait. He wasn't her teammate anymore.

Sasuke looked up at the house.

He could sense Sakura's faint chakra and the doctor's healthy aura.

She seemed to be conscious.

Sasuke sighed in relief.

He stiffened.

The great Uchiha Sasuke sighed in relief because Sakura survived?

He glared at the snow.

He had to find a cure for whatever it was that he had.

"…have to tell him," he suddednly heard the doctor say.

Sasuke stared at the house.

Were they talking about him?

* * *

><p>"You don't understand," Sakura said. "It's not that simple."<p>

"How can we make it simple then?" Kaitaro asked.

Sakura sighed and looked away.

"Sakura-san, please," Kaitaro said. "Look at yourself. When was the last time that you had your bandages changed?"

Sasuke stiffened.

…Bandages..?

"It was before Jiro-kun left, wasn't it?" the doctor asked. "I know because I just changed your bandages. And I'm telling you, it was not a pretty sight. It was a good thing it's extremely cold here. If it was any different, we would need to amputate your limbs due to severe infection."

Sasuke's eyes widened.

…Infection..? Amputate Sakura's limbs..?

"He's not here to be my nurse," Sakura said.

"Jiro-kun never saw himself as your nurse," Kaitaro answered. "He saw himself as your friend."

"… But this isn't Jiro-kun," Sakura said. "This is Sasuke!"

"He was worried about you," Kaitaro reasoned. "Is that not enough for you?"

Sasuke heard Sakura sob.

"It's not that easy," she said, her voice breaking.

Sasuke felt his chest grow numb.

That was how severed their ties were, huh? Even their ties as teammates…It was too severed to ever mend.

Sasuke looked apathetically down on the snow – his chest numbing painfully.

Why would he want it to mend anyway?

But the feeling seemed stronger than the thought.

Kaitaro took a deep breath and sighed. "Dry your tears, child," he said. "I'm telling him to take care of you whether you like it or not. I'll teach him all the basics. Anyway, you need to rest. I just woke you up to know what happened."

There was silence in the house.

Sasuke figured that Sakura heeded to the doctor's order.

His feet decided to continue its walk home.

Sasuke found himself in from of the door in a matter of seconds.

"Sasuke-san," Kaitaro greeted, opening the door for him.

Sasuke glanced at the doctor before his eyes instinctively looked passed him.

Kaitaro smiled. "She's okay," he said, stepping away and guiding him to the bedroom.

Sasuke followed him and soon spotted something pink on the futon. He stepped closer and realized that Sakura was covered with a thick quilt. Her cheeks were scarlet and her chest heaved shakily for air.

There was also a white towel on her forehead.

"She has a high fever," Kaitaro said. "We need the antibiotics for the infected frost bites."

"She has wounds," Sasuke said.

Kaitaro raised his brows.

"That's why she buried her legs in the snow," Sasuke said staring at Sakura.

Her face didn't look peaceful. It was like she was trapped inside a sad dream.

Kaitaro stiffened and looked away.

Sasuke was a smart lad. It was only a matter of time.

"Her wounds got infected," Sasuke said. "That's why she's like that."

Kaitaro nodded. "She'll need help," he said.

Sasuke didn't answer. He kept his eyes on Sakura.

Kaitaro looked at him and saw hurt and grief in Sasuke's eyes. He smiled sadly. "Help me set the IV tubing up," he said.

Sasuke put the bag on his back down and began pulling out the IV set and the antibiotics.

Kaitaro set everything up, teaching Sasuke how to do it on his own and telling him all the things he needed to know about it.

Sasuke watched Sakura sleep after they cleaned up everything. Kaitaro was already putting the extra bottles of antibiotics in a cabinet.

"Is she sick?" Sasuke asked, eyes still fixed at Sakura's face.

Kaitaro stiffened.

Sasuke looked at the doctor. "Is Sakura sick?"


	17. Chapter 17

_YEY! I thought I wasn't going to be able to upload anything this week. I couldn't log in to my account for some reason. _

_Anyway, thank you all so much again for reading and reviewing Scroll!_

_Since I really LOVE all of you,I've decided to give you a Valentine's Day (week) gift. Since I can't send out chocolates to you, ('coz it's going to be too expensive for my pocket, not to mention difficult because you're all over the world), I decided to just give you this long chapter as a PRE-Valentine's Day gift. _

_Take note of "PRE-" ^ _v ^

_Before I go on, I noticed that there are still people who are confused on the relationship that Jirotaiku and Sakura have. I really like to blatantly clear that up but I'm afraid it would make some major changes in the plot that I personally don't think would be good for what's going on in the story right now. _

_But hey, I love all of you so maybe I can make a work around. I just need to know how many of you are still confused 'coz based on the most of the reviews I got, it was cleared up in Chapter 14. _

_Just give me a guess on what you think is going on between them, or what's going on in the story. _

_This next chapter has some points that would hopefully enlighten you on what's going on as well. Please don't hesitate to tell me what you think about this chapter or if it's helped you get a better picture of the story! _^ v ^

* * *

><p>Kaitaro thought for a moment.<p>

Was it really time to tell him the truth?

"You know I'm not just talking about her fever now," Sasuke said.

Kaitaro turned to face him. "You think she's sick of something more," he said.

"Did she get infected with the disease that caused the epidemic?" Sasuke asked. "Is that why she has these wounds?"

"Times were…difficult," Kaitaro said looking away. "There was anarchy. People didn't know who to trust. Some of them tried to attack us. People who didn't get the disease and were too paranoid of getting it decided to burn those who had the disease."

The doctor took a seat beside Sakura to sit across Sasuke. "The village had a big hospital back then," he continued. "It was made of thick wood planks and beams. It was quite an old building but it was sturdy enough to house most of the patients against snow storms.

One night, we heard a loud explosion on the roof. The next thing we knew, the structure was burning. We had to evacuate everyone. But before we could get the patients out, we heard several explosions on different parts of the hospital."

"People panicked," Kaitaro continued, recalling how frightening the experience was – being trapped by giant flames. "We were divided into several groups. Sakura-san and her team did their best to help the people get out. She took charge of saving the children and the infants who couldn't help themselves. She held up burning beams so they wouldn't get hurt. She guided them and carried them through the flames. Right after the last villager got out, the building collapsed with Sakura-san still inside it."

Sasuke felt his chest grow numb.

If they were there - Kakashi, Naruto and himself, Sakura wouldn't be left inside.

He would pull her out in no time.

"Jiro-kun ran into the flames to get her," Kaitaro said. "We all thought they were dead. But they emerged from the flames – Sakura unconscious, arms and legs with third degree burns. Jiro-kun said he found her under a pile of burning logs. Her arms shielded her face from the flames."

Sasuke looked down at Sakura.

It must have been hell for her.

"She's shy," Kaitaro said looking sadly at Sasuke. "She's ashamed of what you might see if you help her with her wounds. Jiro-kun seemed indifferent with her wounds. He didn't feel disgusted about it. It's not a pretty sight to see."

Sasuke kept his straight face.

So Sakura was ashamed of herself. That was why she pushed him away - whay she preferred that Anbu over him.

"The thing is," Kaitaro continued. "She can't treat her wounds on her own. This weather isn't helping her wounds and it gets infected more."

Sasuke looked down at her arms.

So the garments under her kimono sleeve also covered her wounds.

"She'll need someone who can change her bandages," Kaitaro ended.

Sasuke looked up at him. "How do you change the bandages?"

Kaitaro smiled.

At least Sasuke was willing to help Sakura.

But Kaitaro could only lie for so long.

Though it was true that Sakura got stuck in a fire, it wasn't exactly where she got her wounds.

"There," Kaitaro thought looking down at Sakura. "I didn't tell him. I'm leaving the truth for you to tell."

"Come to the clinic tomorrow morning," the doctor told Sasuke. "I'll teach you how to treat burns."

* * *

><p>"I'm assuming she's better," Keiko said looking at Sasuke as he sat down on the dinner table across her.<p>

It was early morning and Keiko was having her breakfast. The doctor asked him to stay with Keiko while he bought some vegetables in the market.

Sasuke ignored her but graced her with a 'hn.'

He left Sakura sleeping in the bedroom.

The doctor said she would be asleep most of the day due to her condition so it okay to leave her. But he had to make sure that she ate breakfast and drank her medicines before he left.

So he woke Sakura up and helped her eat the soup he prepared that morning.

He could still remember how dead she looked like. Her eyes were drooping and she barely looked at him.

He figured Sakura didn't even realize that it was Uchiha Sasuke who was feeding her. Instead, he believed she thought Jirotaiku was taking care of her.

After she finished the soup and drank her medicine, she immediately fell asleep again.

At least she wasn't as pale as she did the night before, and he was sure that he would be able to wake her up again later that noon when he came back from the clinic.

"I told you not to worry," Keiko said shrugging her shoulders.

Sasuke remembered why Keiko was confident that Sakura was going to be alright.

"What's the Snow Spirit?" he asked.

Keiko raised a brow at him. "The Snow Spirit is the spirit of the snow," she answered.

Sasuke glared at her. "I **know** that," he said. "But why do you know of such a spirit?"

"My Okaa-san told me," she answered. "Every adult in the village tells their children the story of the Snow Spirit."

"What's the story?"

Keiko smirked. "Sasuke-san wants to hear a story?"

Sasuke glared coldly at Keiko.

Immune to the glare, Keiko laughed. "Fine," she said. "I don't want Sasuke-san to throw tantrums on me."

"Hn," Sasuke spat.

"The Snow Spirit is a god that came down from heaven," she said. "They said that this mountain was all stone – no tree, no life, no colour. But people tried to live here because people down the mountain were bad. One of the people who tried to live here had a daughter. She was very pretty and many men down the mountain wanted to own her. Fearing for his daughter's life, the man took his daughter here. The daughter's name was Keiko."

"You're making this up," Sasuke muttered.

"…AM NOT!" Keiko defended scowling at Sasuke – her cheeks too plump and rosy to scare anyone away.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Do you want me to continue or what?"

"Hn."

"One day," Keiko said leaning closer to Sasuke as if she was about to tell him a horror story. "The daughter decided to explore the mountain while her father went down to the other part of the island to fish. She saw a white man with white long hair sleeping on a stone. She took a closer look at him and noticed how handsome he was. She was so amazed at him that she tried to touch his face. But the man quickly opened his white eyes and held her wrist tight in his hand."

Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes.

…Great. A love story. How lucky. And Hyuuga seemed to be there - just change long white hair to long brown hair and woila.

"He asked her what her name was but Keiko didn't tell him because she shouldn't talk to strangers," Keiko said. "It's bad to talk to strangers."

Sasuke sighed.

…Right.

"The man smiled at her and told her that he won't say his name to her unless she told him her name," Keiko said. "Keiko slapped his face and ran away from him. She didn't tell her father about him. But whenever her father went away to get food, the man met her and gave her flowers and cotton candy."

Sasuke scowled at Keiko.

"Liar," he said.

A man would give a girl candy? He didn't court anyone but he knew giving cotton candy to a girl isn't the way to express a man's romantic feelings.

"Do you know the story?" Keiko asked crossing her arms proudly.

Sasuke glared at her.

"Exactly," Keiko said. "This is **my **story, not yours! What I like to happen here happens! You don't like what's happening in this story? GO MAKE YOUR OWN STORY! Don't rant like you know what should happen here!"

Sasuke sighed and looked away.

Keiko glared at him.

Sasuke just stared apathetically.

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Are you going to listen to me now?" Keiko asked.

"Hn."

Keiko nodded. "I'll take that as a 'yes, your majesty.'"

Sasuke glared at her.

Keiko smirked. "That's what you get for not knowing words other than 'hn,'" she teased. "Heck! I couldn't find that word in the dictionary."

Sasuke gritted his teeth.

The kid was more irritating than the blonde idiot he knew back in Konoha.

"Anyway, Keiko learned to like him but she didn't give him her name," she said, continuing her story. "When she did plan to tell him her name, a group of bad people tried to kidnap her. She wanted to call for his help but she didn't know his name. So before the bad men could take her away, she killed herself and wrote on the ground 'My name is Keiko.'"

Sasuke's face turned grim.

The story was too morbid for a child like Keiko to tell. Perhaps she did hear the story from her mother. She just modified it to her liking.

"The bad men ran away," she continued enthusiastically. "When the white man saw her, she was already dead. He grieved for her loss and wept over her body. The tears that fell down on her body became snow. And he cried and cried until his tears filled the mountain with snow. He died of extreme dehydration. That's why I don't cry a lot. It will make me look really old until I get extremely dehydrated. Then I'll die."

Sasuke kept his mouth in a straight line.

Wasn't the 'white man' supposed to be a god? He should be immortal.

And too much crying led to dehyrdation and death? Sakura was a cry baby but she's still alive.

"And the white man's spirit stayed here in the mountain to avenge Keiko," Keiko said. "He became the Snow Spirit because he made the snow in the mountain. Okaa-san said he helped villagers a lot in the past. He helped them when they got lost in the forest, or healed them when they got sick. But people in the village became greedy and the Snow Spirit decided to hide himself. Now, only those with really good hearts get to see him. And he helps them too."

"…And the revenge?" Sasuke asked.

He was the master of vengeance after all. Though the Snow Spirit's cause was lame, he was still curious on how he did his vengeance.

Did the Snow Spirit try to wipe out the villagers living below the mountain?

"Okaa-san said it's bad to avenge people," Keiko answered. "Justice and vengeance are two different things."

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose.

Of course…This was a kid. What else could anyone expect from a kid?

Sasuke tried not to spit a curse word.

"Tadaima," Kaitaro called upon opening the door.

"OTOU-SAN!" Keiko cried excitedly, jumping down from her chair and quickly running to the door.

Sasuke stood up and walked to the door to help Kaitaro with carrying the market produce.

Kaitaro offered Sasuke one of the bags of vegetables he was carrying in his arms.

Sasuke took it and placed it down on the kitchen counter.

"Have you finished eating your breakfast?" Kaitaro asked Keiko as she squeezed his leg.

"Yes," Keiko said smiling brightly at her father.

Kaitaro chuckled. "And were you a good girl to Sasuke-san?"

Keiko pouted. "Sasuke-san was a bad boy," she said.

Sasuke scowled at Keiko.

What..?

"He was a bad listener," Keiko continued. "He asked me to tell him the story of the Snow Spirit and he kept on interrupting me."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned away.

It was useless.

Kaitaro stiffened.

Sasuke knew something about the Snow Spirit?

He looked up at Sasuke. "He was probably just very happy to hear your story that he wanted to know all the details," he said.

Keiko shook her head. "Okaa-san said it's rude to interrupt someone speaking."

Kaitaro chuckled. "I'm terribly sorry, Sasuke-san," he said. "I'm sure you didn't mean to do it."

"Hn," Sasuke replied.

Keiko glared at Sasuke. "And he doesn't know any other word but 'hn,'" she said.

Sasuke turned and glared at her.

Unfazed, Keiko looked up at her father. "Is 'hn' even a word, Otou-san?"

Kaitaro stiffly chuckled. "I'm sure it means something, dear," he said. "Isn't it time for you to go to play outside.

Keiko gasped in shock. "You're right! Chiri-chan must already be waiting for me!"

Kaitaro chuckled and kissed Keiko's cheeks. "Be back by lunch."

"Yes, Otou-san," Keiko answered hugging her father tightly and placing kisses on his cheeks, nose, and forehead.

She then released her father and stuck out her tongue at Sasuke.

Sasuke glared coldly at her in reply.

Keiko shrugged it off and ran out of the house.

Kaitaro shyly looked up at Sasuke. "I'm sorry," he said. "She's really a sweet child."

"Hn," Sasuke said looking away.

"Ah," Kaitaro said placing the bag of vegetables in his arm on the kitchen counter. "Can you give me a hand? Please wash those shellfishes in the bag you carried. There are also some salmon there. Can you clean them too? I'll be preparing the broth and the vegetables."

Sasuke turned to face the counter and did what he was told.

He tried not to wince at how cold the water from the faucet was. He couldn't help but wonder how they kept their water system from freezing.

"So Keiko told you the story of the Snow Spirit," he said as he prepared the dashi stock. "I hope she didn't exaggerate the details that much."

"Hn," Sasuke replied making sure the shellfish didn't have sand inside them. "She said the girl's name was Keiko."

Kaitaro chuckled. "Yes, that's the most common modification in the Snow Spirit story."

Sasuke raised a brow at the doctor.

Kaitaro smiled as he washed the vegetables. "I remember when my mother told that story to me," he said. "She used her own name as the name of the girl. When my friends and I met and talked about the story, we disagreed on what the name of the girl was. It seemed that anyone who told the story used their own names to refer to the girl."

He looked at Sasuke. "Do you know what our village is called?"

"Mountain-top Village," Sasuke answered.

At least that was what the mission description said the village's name was.

Kaitaro chuckled. "Yes," he said. "You will get here if you use that name to ask directions. But that's not the name."

Sasuke stared at the doctor.

"The village's name is known only by the villagers," he said checking the dashi stock he was making. "Any guesses?"

Sasuke didn't answer.

He was from Konoha for goodness' sake.

Snow Village? Snow Spirit Village? Dead Girl Village?

Kaitaro chuckled. "It's Nanashi."

Sasuke stared at Kaitaro. "Your village doesn't have a name."

Kaitaro smiled at him. "It does. It's Nanashi – Nameless," he said. "They said our elders never knew the name of the girl in the story but they wanted to honour her, so they named the village after her. And since she was as good as nameless, the village was named 'Nameless.'"

Sasuke looked down at the salmon he was cleaning.

The villagers were lunatics.

"So you've heard about the Snow Spirit before Keiko told you the story," Kaitaro said. "You heard it from Sakura-san?"

Sakura knew about the Snow Spirit too? Did she believe it?

"Keiko," Sasuke said skillfully slicing the salmon. "She said it's helping Sakura."

"Oh," Kaitaro said. "It's a common belief here, you see. For some reason, villagers who get lost in the woods eventually get back to their homes in one piece."

Sasuke looked at the doctor from the corner of his eyes.

Something other than the salmon in his hand was fishy.

Kaitaro felt his stare. "So how did Keiko's version of the story go?" he asked.

"It cried, filled the mountain with snow, and died," Sasuke answered.

Kaitaro nodded. "It varies from one family to another," he said. "One generation to the next."

Sasuke watched him carefully.

Would the doctor tell him everything? Or would he try to lie about it just like how he lied about where Sakura got her wounds?

Sure, the story was believable but it didn't explain how pale and sickly Sakura was when he arrived in the village. She should have already healed herself by the time Sasuke came.

"Some stories say that the Snow Spirit is a white fox roaming around the forest," Kaitaro said. "Some say it's a fair maiden. Some also believe that no one can see it because it's a spirit."

"What's true?" Sasuke asked.

Kaitaro chuckled. "It's a myth," he said. "…A local one. You know how people make up stories about things they don't understand? The Snow Spirit is an example."

Sasuke looked away.

…Another lie.

"My wife once said that the best way to know the truth is not to hear it from others," the doctor said. "It is to **know** it."

Sasuke kept his eyes on the salmon he was slicing.

It seemed like his mission wasn't that simple after all.

* * *

><p>Houren smirked as he read the scroll that contained the report of one of his men.<p>

It was early morning when his messenger came with the scroll. His eyes sparkled in excitement upon reading its contents.

He was right.

And he was sure to win their complicated game of hide and seek.

"Is that Roku's report" Akio asked walking into Houren's room with a tray of tea in his hands. His wounds had already healed.

It was as if he didn't get wounded at all.

Houren turned to Akio. "Yes," he said proudly. "Any guesses on what it says?"

Akio looked away. "Well, by the smile you have on your face, it's good news."

Houren chuckled. "Oh Akio," he said. "You've always been the brawn, never the brain."

Akio bowed his head in shame.

Houren turned to look at the scroll again.

"The visitor," Akio said carefully. "Is the person you think he is..?"

Houren laughed. "And more," he said. "Let me tell you something interesting about our visitor."

"Four years ago, he fought a ninja who he grew up with. That fight not only ended his thirst for revenge on the extinction of his clan. It also was supposed to end his life. But lo and behold, he survived – both our visitor and the ninja he fought with. The ninja he fought with had a powerful fox spirit inside him so it wasn't that surprising that he survived. But our visitor, Akio! He was as good as **dead** after the fight. But their medic **nin** was SO good, he survived."

Akio looked confused at Houren.

Houren smiled brightly at Akio. "Do you know of a technique that could have saved him?"

"Of course," Akio answered. "He would just need to have at least a faint pulse for the technique to work. But it's a technique that only our clan knows. And Konoha had no idea about our village's existence at that time, right?"

Houren chuckled and looked at his window. "I have always wondered how she found out about what we did," he said.

Akio stiffened. "You mean Sakura already knew about our clan even before she came here?"

"Not the clan," Houren said. "I doubt she knew about our clan. If she did, she would have known about it the first time she heard of the disease's symptoms. Not the clan...Just the technique...and not all of it, I believe."

Akio looked away.

How would an outsider know about a jutsu that was developed and inherited by a clan that was long hidden from people outside the village?

The jutsu itself wasn't even passed on to **every** member of the clan. It was passed only to one member, who was supposed to pass it to another member before he or she died.

It was never taught to anyone else in the clan. Only to the one that was chosen to know it.

And that chosen one was kept hidden from everyone once he bore all that there was to know about the jutsu.

Where could she have gotten it? Was there another clan member living outside the village? …Another clan member hiding beyond the walls of Konoha?

"You want to know another interesting thing about our visitor?" Houren asked smiling at nowhere.

Akio nodded.

"The elders of Konoha wanted him dead, fearing that once he woke up, he would once again try to eradicate the village," Houren began. "And they were right, because he woke up nine months after his fight with the ninja. And the first thing he did, despite having severely broken bones and internal hemorrhage, was set the ninjas guarding him ablaze using black flames that came from his eye."

Akio's eyes widened. He didn't think Sasuke was that powerful.

"A medic ninja," Houren continued. "The same medic ninja who saved his life, stopped him and put him to sleep using a jutsu that no one in the village knew. The elders gave orders to execute our visitor. But the medic nin asked them to wait for our visitor to wake up a year later. They heeded to the request, saying that once he woke up and wounded anyone near him, the medic nin would also be executed for treason. A year later, he woke up with no memory of the last havoc he made. He remained aloof, but for some reason, he didn't try to escape. Further observation proved that he couldn't use his jutsus. He couldn't even use his powerful eyes."

Houren looked at Akio. "He was impaled," he said. "And his chakra levels shrunk down to that of an average toddler's – weak and untamed. It only improved when he proved to no longer be a threat to Konoha. But he still couldn't use his most destructive jutsus."

Akio stiffened.

He knew a jutsu that could cause those symptoms – a jutsu that no one other than their chosen clan member should know.

Houren smiled. "And he didn't feel the supposed mental and emotional trauma that caused his rage against Konoha," he said. "He remembered the events, yes, but he no longer **felt** them."

Akio swallowed loudly.

Houren chuckled. "I've always wondered why Sakura needed that Anbu to protect her," he said. "I heard that as the Hokage's apprentice, she learned how to strongly protect herself. I know she even defeated an Akatsuki member. But when she came here, she couldn't even throw a kunai. Jirotaiku did all the work for her."

Akio looked away. "Do you think…Do you think Konoha knows about those jutsus too?" he asked.

"No," Houren said smiling at the scroll in his hand. "Those were forbidden techniques. If their Hokage knew about it, she won't allow anyone else to know about it."

Akio nodded.

Houren chuckled. "Sakura will die by my hands after all," he said. "And Uchiha Sasuke will help me make sure that happens."


	18. Chapter 18

_I didn't like your review, Timber Wolf of Purity. I LOVED IT! ^ _v ^

_And thank you so much for those comments solitaire28, kekedia, and Reignashii! You're all awesome story detectives, haha!_

_I'm not sure if it's already Valentine's Day in your country at this very moment but I had some changes in my schedule so I'm uploading this Valentine's Day gift of mine today. _

_And for the concern I opened up on the previous chapter, I've read some responses and I'll be discussing them at the end of this chapter. * _v *

_Hope you enjoy this one!_

* * *

><p>Sasuke sighed as he put the clean dishes in the cupboard.<p>

The day passed quickly.

That morning, after preparing what they needed for Yose Nabe, the doctor taught him how to treat frost bites and change bandages. Sasuke practiced what he learned when people started going to the clinic for help.

Before noon, they began cooking the Yose Nabe, with Keiko ordering Sasuke what to put in the steamy dashi stock. The doctor then gave him some of the soup as Sakura's lunch.

Sakura's lunch was as eventful as her breakfast. She was too groggy to even exchange greetings with. She quickly fell asleep after finishing her bowl of soup.

Sasuke had to wake her up again just so she could drink her medicines.

He sighed. She looked terrible that noon.

Sasuke returned to the clinic after Sakura went back to sleep since he was supposed to be the doctor's assistant. He kept on practicing what he learned in caring for the sick, treating wounds, and knowing the medicines that were available in the clinic.

He came home before dinner to feed Sakura and make sure that she took her medicine. It was, like her breakfast and lunch, very eventful.

Sasuke walked to the door of the bedroom and stared at Sakura's sleeping form.

He changed her bag of dextrose and antibiotics before he ate his supper.

She was still weak.

That was why she could barely hold her consciousness. Her eyes drooped constantly whenever he refilled her spoon. He even thought he would have to move her jaws to make her swallow.

But she looked far better than the Sakura that haunted his thoughts whenever he shut his eyes.

Sasuke looked away.

The doctor said she would be able to eat on her own by next week. She would start to be more conscious and less unconscious by then.

Sasuke walked to the porch and looked up at the dark sky.

Another snow storm was coming.

He walked back inside the house and secured the doors and windows.

He knew Sakura would be fine. But he couldn't help but feel scared…scared that something terrible would happen to her.

Sasuke sat down by the hearth after making sure that the house was sealed.

Did Sakura feel that way when she took care of him? When he was in a coma..?

Ino told him several stories about Sakura staying up at night just to guard him in the hospital when he was still unconscious in the ICU. She said Sakura went home only once a week to make sure everything was alright with him.

She didn't let other medic nins take care of him. Ino said Sakura was worried about how people would try to kill him when he was unconscious.

Those stories made him think that Sakura was still crazy about him – that she would blush terribly the moment she saw him again, that she would do anything for him…that she…

...She would need him.

But that wasn't the case when he saw her again.

Sasuke stared at the flames of the hearth and remembered how it resembled Jirotaiku's hair, according to the patient he spoke with in the clinic.

...Red and yellow like flames...

He glared at the flames feeling numb in his chest again, unconsciously activating his mangekyo.

He cursed when black flames burst and replaced the glowing flames in the hearth.

Sasuke cursed and stood up, putting out the Amaterasu he made and deactivating his mangekyo afterwards.

Darkness swallowed the house.

Sasuke sighed and made another fire using his Katon no Jutsu.

The house wasn't dark anymore.

Sasuke sat down, scratching his head and muttering curses.

Ever since he woke up, he had lost control over his powers. It took him a year to activate his sharingan again. And it was five months after that when he was able to do the chidori jutsu that Kakashi taught him.

It was terrible.

He felt like he was the Uchiha Sasuke that went to the Chunin exam with Naruto and Sakura – the one that Orochimaru was yet to meet.

At first, he thought the Hokage had put a sealing jutsu on his chakra. But it should have left a mark on him somehow. He did some research and even had Naruto checking him for any sealing jutsus in his body.

They found no trace of a seal. Other than having chakra levels that resembled an average genin, he was normal.

Luckily, he had regained the ability to do his techniques again. Unfortunately, he couldn't control them that well.

Like the Amaterasu he made. It seemed that the only control he had on it was putting it out.

He learned that his mangekyo sharingan and Amaterasu came out on their own when he suddenly became very upset. And by upset, that meant that his chest would suddenly feel extremely hollow…

...Just like what happened to him earlier.

Sasuke covered his left eye and glared at the flames of the hearth.

He got terribly upset because he thought of that Anbu who Sakura seemed to adore so much?

Sasuke felt his mangekyo activate at the thought of the hearth being Jirotaiku's head.

He cursed and shut his eyes.

He took several deep breaths to calm himself, feeling how hollow his chest was. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the fire again.

There was really something wrong with him.

Sasuke heard the strong wind howl from beyond the door. He looked up at the door.

It seemed strong enough to hold the wind off.

"-kun…" he heard someone mumble from the bedroom.

He stiffened.

"Sakura..?"

"ke-kun…" he heard someone mumble again.

Sasuke quickly rushed to the bedroom to check on Sakura.

Was she in pain? Was the IV needle dislocated?

Sasuke checked her hands and arms – no blood anywhere, not even on the IV tube.

He sighed in relief and looked at Sakura's face.

She was still sleeping but she looked scared…worried.

"Su…-kun," she mumbled weakly.

Sasuke smirked.

There was no "Su" in Jirotaiku.

...Unless the guy had a family name that started with "Su."

Sasuke scowled and shook his head. Sakura called him 'Jiro-kun,' not '(insert Jirotaiku's family name here)-kun.')

"Sa…k…-un," Sakura mumbled again, water filling the edge of her eyelids.

"Here," Sasuke said, taking her hand in his.

Sakura stopped mumbling. Her face looked calm.

Sasuke stiffened.

Was she dreaming about him? Did she lose him in the dream? Was that what she was afraid of?

Sasuke looked away.

What he was doing was uncharacteristic of him. It was therefore…

**Wrong**.

His eyes looked back at Sakura and stayed there – watching her sleep calmly.

The snow storm swept the mountain, covering the trees and the houses with tiny crystals that formed cold white blankets...

...Sasuke sitting next to Sakura's sleeping form, with his hand holding hers.

* * *

><p><em>Okay, this might ruin my Valentine's Day gift to you but I promised myself I would address this as soon as possible. So here goes ^ <em>v

_I asked all of you what confuses you about what Jiro and Sakura have between them and based on the reviews I read, it's basically Jirotaiku's existence in the story – that it ruins the concept of true love that Sasuke and Sakura is supposed to have in the plot (since there's another man involved). __I can't really blame you for still hating him. I also promised that I'll see if I can do something about this concern._

_Unfortunately, for this, I'm really sorry. I can't take Jiro out of this story. If I do, I would have to change the whole plot. I would need to basically delete all the chapters, the whole story for that matter, and think of something else to write. _

_I'm not sure if you've noticed but Jiro in this story, for me at least, has an important role in the plot. I know a fanfic is a fantasy of an already established story so you're supposed to have the chance to change how already established characters act and stuff. _

_But I really like how Masashi Kishimoto portrayed his characters. So I find it hard to make Sasuke act like a normal guy – someone who laughs when things are funny, or who easily realizes that he likes someone. So I made my own character, Jirotaiku, to soften him up a little or more like force him to show some emotion._

_I'm really sorry but erasing Jirotaiku in this story for me is like erasing Naruto or Lee in the Naruto series. I understand that not even telling you that Jiro just gave Sakura his kimono in that slightly perverted chapter 11, or telling you blatantly now that what Jiro has is a one-sided love affair with Sakura, would change your mind about this story. So I won't hold it against you if you decide that Scroll is just too crappy to read from here on. _

_I still thank you all for reading it despite this problem in the plot. And I also thank you for pointing this thing out. * _v_ * _


	19. Chapter 19

_I found that comment of yours hilarious, _S. F. T. T. ^ v ^ _And I thank you all so much for understanding Jiroraiku's presence in the story. _

_I'm glad a lot of you enjoyed that "Valentine's Day chapter." _

_Here's another chapter for the week. Don't forget to tell me what you think about it! _

* * *

><p>"He asked about you," Kaitaro said sitting beside Keiko's sleeping form.<p>

It was a couple of hours before midnight and the snow storm was making the winds howl eerily. Scared of the sounds echoing from beyond her windows, Keiko asked to sleep beside her father.

"Is that so?" the fair man said combing his long white hair as he sat across Kaitaro. "I haven't shown myself to him though."

"I believe it is Keiko-chan," Kaitaro said gently brushing Keiko's hair away from her face.

The man chuckled. "I LOVE little Keiko-chan," he said smiling at the sleeping child.

Kaitaro looked up at the man. "I lied to him about Sakura-san," he said. "I don't know if I did the right thing."

"Which fact about cherry blossom did you tell a lie about, exactly?" the man asked.

"The part that explains why she has those wounds," Kaitaro said looking down at Keiko.

"Which wounds?"

Kaitaro looked confused at the man. "The ones on her arms and legs," he said.

"Ah!" the man said chuckling. "A little white lie won't harm anyone, especially him."

Kaitaro frowned. "He cares about her."

"**Does** he, now?" the man sarcastically said.

"Surely you saw how scary he was that night," Kaitaro reasoned. "He was really worried about her."

"Perhaps," the man replied. "But I heard cherry blossom tends to fall for men who never like her back."

Kaitaro stared confused at him. "Isn't he the only man she had fallen for?"

"Exactly," the man said cheerfully.

Kaitaro sighed and shook his head. "When will you take things seriously?"

"I'm already doing so," the man said. "That's why I'm here."

Kaitaro watched him carefully. The man began to braid his hair.

"You asked me which wounds," Kaitaro said.

The man looked up at him, brows raised.

"So Sakura-san has other wounds," Kaitaro said. "Jiro-kun said it was a miracle that Sasuke-san survived two years ago."

The man smirked. "**Now** do you understand why she can't just tell him everything?"

Kaitaro's eyes grew wide in shock. He looked away. "But…But he's the only one who can help her."

The man's face grew serious. "I know," he said. "He's also the only one who can kill her."

Kaitaro winced.

That was true.

* * *

><p>Tsunade stared at the empty chair across her office table.<p>

It was already almost midnight and the only people awake in the building were the Anbu guards, Tsunade and her companion - a bottle of sake.

It was also around that time that Sakura sat on the empty chair across her about two years ago.

"Anbu," Sakura said sitting in front of the Hokage. "You think this should be kept secret," Sakura said.

Tsunade looked grimly at Sakura. "You said it yourself," she said. "The disease seems more than a disease. And other ninja villages seem to believe the same thing. **That** or they suddenly want to learn about biological warfare."

The Hokage leaned back on her chair. "Either way," she continued. "This mission is too sensitive for ordinary jounins to take on. I don't want the elders ordering us to slaughter another clan to save Konoha."

Sakura nodded slowly, understanding Tsunade's point.

"I want you to provide the Anbu with all the information you think would be useful to them in this mission," Tsunade said. "Submit it to me tomorrow night."

"Tsunade-shishou," Sakura said looking away. "When…When will you send the Anbu team?"

"Three days from now," Tsunade answered.

"That's…That's when Sasuke will get out of his prison cell," Sakura muttered.

Tsunade eyed her carefully. "Yes."

Sakura looked up at Tsunade. "Can you send out a medic nin with the Anbu team?" Sakura asked.

"I already did," Tsunade answered.

Sakura clenched her fist. "Can you send me out with that team?"

"I can," Tsunade answered. "But why would I do that?"

Sakura took a deep breath and summoned all her confidence. "I want to know more about the disease," she said. "If the intelligence report is accurate, it's possible that there's already a ninja village out there with basic knowledge about the illness. I believe we should catch up with them by coming up with a cure to the illness."

Tsunade watched Sakura with a bored expression.

"I will leave the mission to keep the Anbu team safe to the medic nin you assigned," Sakura said.

"In short, you want to go there for a separate mission," Tsunade said.

"Yes, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura answered.

"No."

Sakura tried hard not to wince. "A mission to find the cure to the disease and even to find what causes the disease will greatly benefit Konoha," she said.

"Then I will have the medic nin I assigned do that job," Tsunade said. "This conversation is over."

Sakura stood up.

The Hokage raised her brows at her.

"You said it yourself," she said. "I am one of the best medic nins in Konoha today. My participation in that mission will ensure its success."

"You are in-charge of Uchiha Sasuke," Tsunade said glaring coldly at her student.

"My responsibility to Uchiha Sasuke ends when he leaves his prison cell," Sakura reasoned. "That was the condition we and the elders agreed on in the trial."

"And you are to still going to be responsible for whatever he does outside his prison cell," Tsunade reminded.

"I have not forgotten that fact," Sakura said. "And I have no intention of running away from whatever punishment I need to receive from you and the elders in the event that he tries to hurt or destroy anyone and anything in the village."

"Being on that mission will get you away from the village," Tsunade said.

"But not under your supervision," Sakura said. "And I have no plans of getting away from that, not when becoming a missing nin automatically grants death penalty on Sasuke."

Tsunade just watched Sakura.

Sakura's fists were clenched and shaking.

"Does this mission have something to do with what you did to save him?" Tsunade asked.

Sakura closed her eyes. "I…believe so."

"What do you intend to do if it **does** have something to do with it?"

Sakura opened her eyes and looked at Tsunade.

The Hokage saw sadness and courage in her eyes.

"I intend to undo it all," Sakura answered. "…Just as the elders wanted."

"You want us to kill him."

"I want him to realize what I wish him to realize, without the things I did," Sakura said, her voice slightly trembling. "The elders were right. If he woke up without what I gave him, he would still want to destroy the village. He would never see us as his family anymore."

"But you still hope he will," Tsunade said. "You still hope he will go back to being the Sasuke you know."

"I hope," she said. "That's all I can do about it after all."

"If you undo what you did, there's a greater possibility that he would seek Konoha's destruction," Tsunade said. "And I would have to order every ninja to kill him on sight."

"That's the only way to save Konoha," Sakura said.

"…And save him. Is that correct?" Tsunade asked.

Sakura looked away.

"Sit down," Tsunade said.

Sakura did what she was told.

"I want to hear it," Tsunade said.

Sakura couldn't look up at Tsunade.

"The Anbu guards around his prison cell said you acted like you didn't know him before he was imprisoned," the Hokage began. "You called him 'Sasuke.' You didn't speak to him unless not doing so affected your task of caring for his health. Why the indifference..?"

Sakura looked up at Tsunade. "That was the agreement with the elders," she said. "That I act indifferent."

"Is that all?" Tsunade asked. "Or is there something else I need to know?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Tsunade-shishou."

"You haven't been performing well in the hospital," Tsunade said.

Sakura stiffened.

"You haven't killed anyone yet, but you can't seem to heal people much either," Tsunade said. "You've asked other medic nins to do it for you several times."

Sakura didn't know what to say.

"They don't seem to mind," Tsunade said. "Knowing what you're going through since Uchiha Sasuke came back. But it doesn't change the fact that it's wrong, and that I have to reprimand you for it."

Sakura took a deep breath.

"I want to hear it," Tsunade said. "What did you do to Sasuke? And what effect did it have on you?"

"I just didn't have that much sleep these past weeks," Sakura answered.

"Why?"

"I've been…"

"You really believe you can lie to me, Sakura?"

Sakura winced.

"WHY."

"I will tell you everything," Sakura began. "…If you send me out on that mission."

Tsunade glared at Sakura.

"Otherwise, I'm willing to accept any punishment you wish to give me."

Tsunade wondered if punishing Sakura for not performing her medic nin duties in the hospital was wiser than sending her out on the mission.

She had wondered about it ever since Sakura walked out of the gates of Konoha with the Anbu team.

And soon, she would see the fruit of that decision.

Tsunade sighed. She grabbed the bottle of sake on her table and vigorously drank its contents.

Was that what the Third Hokage felt when he realized that he was losing his favorite pupil?

"Damn it," Tsunade cursed. "It's like I'm losing a daughter."


	20. Chapter 20

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing Scroll!_

_Here's another chapter for this week. Don't hesitate to tell me what you think about it!_

* * *

><p>Sasuke walked into the room where Sakura sat drowsily. He held her medicines in one hand, and a glass of water in his other.<p>

It was morning and he had just finished giving Sakura her breakfast.

Sasuke sighed.

Sakura resorted to leaning her head against the wall, just so she didn't fall back on the futon.

She was really trying to stay awake.

Sasuke sat down beside her and gave her the medicines.

She drank it and mumbled a 'thank you.'

Sasuke stood up with the half-empty glass of water in his hand. "Go back to sleep."

Sakura shook her head. "Scroll," she said.

Sasuke glared at Sakura. "Sleep."

Sakura glared back…which looked more like she was squinting.

"Annoying," Sasuke muttered as he knelt down. He put the glass of water on a nearby table and looked at Sakura.

"Sleep," he commanded. "I'm going to the clinic."

"I-knn-owww," Sakura slurred looking drowsily up at him.

"Then go to sleep," Sasuke said. "You're annoying."

Sakura looked away.

For a moment there Sasuke thought she was crying.

Sasuke scooted closer to Sakura and held her close to him. "Sleep," he said. "You'll mess the scroll up if you force yourself. You'll be doodling on it instead of writing something with meaning on it."

Sakura closed her eyes and whined.

Sasuke kept her close to his chest, waiting for Sakura to surrender herself to slumber.

It had been three days since she got sick. Her fever had subsided a little but her strength was yet to return.

Her hands could barely hold a pair of chopsticks.

Despite her condition, Sakura tried her best to act like she wasn't sick. She tried to stand up several times – all her attempts ending with her, falling hard on the floor and gaining nasty bruises.

"Four more days," Sasuke whispered softly into Sakura's ears. "The doctor said you can go back to writing the scroll after four days."

Sakura groaned weakly in protest.

Sasuke smirked.

Sakura acted childishly when she was sick. She was weak and she hated it.

He gently combed her hair with his hand.

He learned in the past three days that it made her sleepier. He used it to put her to sleep before he went out of the house to work in the clinic.

Sakura was breathing evenly in no time.

Sasuke slowly laid her down on the futon, raising the blanket to her neck to shield her from the cold.

Despite only doing it for the past three days, the act felt normal for Sasuke. Somehow, he didn't mind taking care of her that way.

Perhaps it was the effect of the illness he had – the one that caused the numbness in his chest.

He wondered if it would be wise to ask the doctor to check his health condition.

But if the medic ninjas in Konoha didn't find anything wrong with him, what was the possibility that the doctor would conclude that Sasuke was sick?

Sasuke scowled.

Should he ask Sakura to run a medical check up on him? She was noted as one of the best Konoha medic ninjas after all.

The hospital seemed rattled when she wasn't around to work there.

Sasuke looked at Sakura's face.

She was sick. She could barely heal herself.

Sasuke sighed and looked away.

Something was terribly wrong with Sakura. She should have been able to heal herself. She should have found a way to dry her wounds at least.

But that wasn't what happened.

Sasuke stood up and headed out to the door with the half-empty glass of water. He had to be in the clinic early so no one suspected that he spent the night in the woods.

He washed the glass and kept it in the cupboard before he headed to the door.

While closing the door, he noticed the corner of the house where Sakura wrote the scroll – the small table with piles of papers scattered all over it.

Sasuke scowled.

He would have to clean it up later.

Sasuke shut the door and made sure it was locked before he headed out to the forest.

* * *

><p>Kakashi sat at the top of Hokage Mountain – eyes staring at nothing in particular.<p>

"…Are you listening to me?" Gai said standing beside him.

Kakashi just kept his eyes on the horizon.

Gai sighed and sat down beside him. "You look like an old man, Kakashi," he said. "Older than the man you are. And it's not very challenging to me. As your rival, I believe it is my duty to point out how weak you are becoming."

Kakashi didn't reply.

It was as if he didn't hear anything.

Gai looked seriously at him. "I know something's up with your team," he said. "Ever since Sasuke recovered, you've been quieter than usual. And now you're dead."

Kakashi sighed. "What would you do if you know you will lose two of your students and there's nothing that you can do to save them?"

Gai looked at the horizon proudly. "Well," he began. "They are of age, so to speak. They have every right to do what they wish with the power of their youth." He looked back at Kakashi. "And we're ninjas."

Kakashi looked down at his hands. "It's my fault," he muttered. "All of it is my fault. And I can't seem to find a way to correct it."

Gai's face grew grim. "A man who quickly loses hope is not meant to be my rival!" he shouted. "Who are you and what have you done to Hatake Kakashi?" he yelled, standing up in a fighting stance.

Kakashi sighed. "Go train somewhere," he said.

Gai glared at Kakashi. "Why do you put so little faith in your students?" he asked. "Did you not teach them anything?"

Kakashi stiffened.

Gai tidied his vest and snorted. "I would rather run a thousand laps around Konoha than talk to someone who ignores the power of youth and hope," he said before he turned around and walked away.

Kakashi shook his head, smirking under his mask.

Gai was stupid and insane.

And he was a good rival.

Kakashi looked up at the horizon. "The power of youth and hope," he muttered. "Maybe I should start running a thousand laps around Konoha too."

* * *

><p>"You're lying to me," Houren said glaring at the man standing in front of him.<p>

The man's white eyes only stared apathetically at Houren.

Houren had been questioning him for the past four hours in the stone dungeon. He would have left him if things weren't that complicated.

"Do you know where Haruno Sakura is?" Houren asked.

"No, I don't," the man answered, boredom all over his face.

Houren stood up and slapped the man's face.

Blood ran down the side of the man's lips.

"I know about Uchiha Sasuke and what Haruno Sakura did to him," Houren yelled glaring coldly at the man. "I know **you** taught her what he did. Now ANSWER ME! AND TELL ME THE TRUTH! DID YOU PICK HARUNO SAKURA AS YOUR HEIR?"

The man looked unfazed at Houren. "I pity myself for actually choosing you as my heir," he said.

Houren raised a brow at him.

"You know well what choosing you as an heir means," the man continued. "You see how I'm still here despite these incredulous accusations and idiotic conclusions you are giving me. And yet you question me that way."

Houren snorted and grabbed the man's chin. "Lie to me, old man," he said. "And I'll make sure you **never** see daybreak."

"You truly are idiotic," the man said. "You're the most idiotic heir I ever chose."

Houren grabbed the man's collar and threw him on the opposite wall of the stone dungeon.

The man slid down to the floor leaving trails of blood on the stone wall.

"Haruno Sakura will **die** by my hands and Uchiha Sasuke will help me do it," Houren said walking out of the dungeon and locking the door behind him.

The man sat up and glared at the door. He sighed and wiped the blood streaming down his forehead. "Uchiha Sasuke will **do **that? Ha! Idiot," he said before he forced himself to stand.


	21. Chapter 21

_Thank you all so much again for reading and reviewing Scroll! ^ _v _^ I understand, from the reviews, that a lot of you are getting really excited to know what on earth Sakura did to Sasuke. _

_Unfortunately, I can't tell you what chapter you'll be able to read about it. Trust me, the Sasuke in my story is as pissed as hell about it too. LOL_

_Anyway, here's another chapter for Scroll. Hopefully once the who's who is established, I'll get to upload the part you've all been waiting for. _

_Hopefully! ^ _v _^ So tell me what you think about this chapter!_

* * *

><p>Daiki watched Sasuke carefully apply medicine on his wound.<p>

It was a few hours earlier when Daiki and his fellow guards were rushed to the clinic – each of them with deep cuts and several bruises.

According to the guards, they came across a bear in the woods that was trying to attack a group of merchants from the village.

They were able to keep the bear away from them but it left them wounded.

Sasuke indifferently did his job, thinking only of how he was properly doing what the doctor taught him to do.

"The doctor trusts you," Daiki said.

Sasuke looked up at him for a moment before he began to wrap bandages around Daiki's wounded arm.

"You know a lot, don't you?" Daiki said.

Sasuke raised a brow at Daiki.

Daiki looked around and saw that the doctor was attending to the other guards.

"Doctor," he called.

Kaitaro looked at Daiki.

"I miss the scent of your incense," he said.

The doctor's face turned slightly grim.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

Incense…The same incense that the doctor lit when they spoke about Sakura in the clinic..?

"Ah, yes doctor," one of the guards seconded. "It helps me relax while I'm here."

The other guards nodded.

"Of course," Kaitaro said, chuckling and hiding the anxiety on his face. "How could I forget to light it? Let me just light some right now."

Sasuke watched the doctor walk to the corner and light three purple incense sticks.

Soon, the scent of lavender and chamomile filled the air.

The guards smiled and looked…calmer.

"It's like a drug," Daiki said smirking at Sasuke.

Sasuke looked confused at him.

"It affects people who don't know much," Daiki said looking at his men as they smiled and chuckled at a lame joke one of them made. "But not people who know about Sakura-san."

Sasuke froze.

Daiki chuckled and smirked at Sasuke. "And here I thought I can't surprise you."

* * *

><p>Sakura opened her eyes.<p>

She didn't know why she decided to wake up but she decided to keep her eyes open.

"Hey," she heard a familiar voice say.

Sakura slowly looked around and spotted a white man sitting across her – his back against the wall. His long white hair was in disarray and blood stained his fair face.

Sakura gasped and tried to sit up.

"WHAT HAPPENED..?"

The man chuckled. "Calm down," he said as he stood up and sat beside her. He slowly pushed her to lie down on her futon.

It was then that Sakura noticed how the cut on his lips and forehead seemed to slowly melt into the whiteness of his skin.

"See?" he said chuckling. "You have nothing to worry about."

"Who…did that…to you?" Sakura asked, trying hard not to stutter as she suddenly felt too tired to stay awake.

"The usual," he said shrugging his shoulders.

Sakura frowned. "You're…endangering yourself."

The man burst into laughter. "Am I supposed to be scared about that fact?"

Sakura sighed. "You're here," she said.

"So?" he asked. "This is **my** home."

Sakura closed her eyes and smiled.

"It's wearing off, isn't it?" the man asked – sadness all over his face since Sakura wouldn't see.

"It's…supposed to wear off…some time," she said. "Do…you have an estimate…on how long…it will last?"

"No," the man answered. "But I have an estimate on how long you'll live."

Sakura chuckled. "I'm so tired," she said. "Are you…lulling me to sleep?"

The man smiled sadly. "Just go to sleep."

Sakura smiled and found herself drifting off to slumber.

The man sighed and placed his right hand of her Sakura's chest.

Green light glowed from his palm.

"I need your permission," he said looking seriously at Sakura's sleeping face. "I need your permission to tell Uchiha Sasuke the truth…at least the truth about your condition. I know you don't want to change how things are, but I just can't leave things here this way…Not when I can make it better. Houren has an accurate idea about everything. He's making a move and our time is running out. Grant me your permission, Sakura-chan."

Sakura didn't reply. She had fallen deeper into slumber's arms.

* * *

><p>"You're a Konoha ninja, right?" Daiki quietly asked as the doctor attended to his colleagues.<p>

Sasuke gave a quiet 'hn' in reply as he secured the bandage he tied.

Daiki nodded. "We've been having visits from other ninjas here in the village," he said. "They've been scouting the place for weeks since Sakura-san vanished."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

Why haven't he noticed them?

"We've set up barriers," Daiki said knowing what Sasuke had in his mind. "That's one good thing we received from Houren. Everything else is crap."

"Hn," Sasuke said. "…Barrier?"

Daiki smirked. "People here don't wield their own chakra," he said. "Unlike you ninjas do."

Sasuke raised a brow at Daiki.

"We, or rather a specific clan here that I unfortunately don't belong to, wield the chakra of everything around us," Daiki said. "That's why when someone tries to find us using chakra signatures, they get nothing but the things around us – plants, trees, animals, insects…no humans."

Sasuke folded his arms in front of him. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I know you know where Sakura-san is," Daiki said. "And I want to help you protect her from Houren."

Sasuke smirked. "You're a guard," he said.

"And Houren killed my family," Daiki said eyes reflecting disgust and hatred. "He and his men killed so many innocent people – mothers, fathers…children! Infants! They should all rot in hell."

Sasuke kept a straight face. He knew that scenario too well.

Daiki was thirsting for vengeance.

"I wasn't a guard," Daiki said looking away. "I was a teacher. I taught toddlers in school. I was about to get married and have my own family. But the plague came."

Sasuke remembered what Sakura told him about the plague – that it wasn't a normal disease; that the doctor seemed to be immune to it but not his wife and child…

…That he should keep his mouth shut about the plague.

He didn't want to believe it, but those statements about the plague were leading him to one conclusion about what it was.

Could the plague really be a disease that Houren and his men had some control on?

"One of Houren's men wanted my fiancée for his own," Daiki said bitterly. "When he learned that she agreed to marry me, he was furious. He told us that if she didn't change her mind, he won't let anyone else have her, not even him. Then the plague came. And my fiancée died."

"It could have been a coincidence," Sasuke said.

Daiki stared up at Sasuke. "You don't know anything about what happened here, do you?"

Sasuke kept his mouth shut.

It wasn't his fault that he didn't know much about it. Sakura was the one who was keeping him at bay from everything, since he was sure that the doctor was also just conspiring with Sakura on doing so.

Keiko was the only person he would be able to get straight and honest answers from.

Daiki chuckled and shook his head. "She probably doesn't want you to get involved," he said. "The last person who was actively involved in this mess almost died in Houren's hands. Is Jiro-kun still alive though?"

"Hn," Sasuke answered.

Of course, the idiot Anbu had to know **everything**. **He** wasn't Uchiha Sasuke after all.

"I'll take that as a 'yes,'" Daiki said, chuckling and looking down at his bandaged arm. "You really like that 'hn' word a lot, don't you?"

Sasuke didn't reply. "What help do you plan to give?"

Daiki looked up at him. "Houren's sent for one of his best men to scour the woods," he said. "I don't know where you and Sakura-san are staying, and it's better that I don't know about it. But just in case you've taken refuge there somewhere, I'm giving you this warning."

Sasuke suddenly regretted leaving Sakura in the house on her own.

"Do you know how to make snow storms?" Daiki asked.

Sasuke just stared at Daiki.

* * *

><p>"There's only one source that can give you the information you seek," Houren said as he sat on his throne – his eyes jadedly looking at the three ninjas wearing grey cloaks and kneeling lowly in front of him. "It's the scroll that the Konoha medic ninja is making."<p>

"I understand," one of the ninjas said looking up at Houren, his face partly covered by his cloak. "And this is why you are looking for her as well."

Houren chuckled. "Looking for her? She's here in our village," he said. "But yes, we're summoning her for the scroll. We don't want Konoha to get **that** much power. The knowledge contained in that scroll could wipe out an entire country. That would let Konoha rule the world, including our village. I wouldn't like that," he said proudly.

"And we can help you do just that," the ninja said.

Houren laughed. "Ninja's from an extinct hidden village will help me?" he said. "And what kind of help could you give me?"

"Oto is not extinct," the ninja said. "Our village lives because Konoha lives. We are the balance that puts Konoha into its proper place. And we can effectively do it with your help. We can securely keep the scroll from Konoha, and even impair Konoha to make sure it does no harm to your village."

Houren smirked. "What exactly do **I** get in return?"


	22. Chapter 22

_Thank you all so much again for reading and reviewing this story! ^ _v 

_For the ending, ( i like your name by the way * _v_ ^) I can't really spill anything just yet. And I'm not sure if the ending I have in mind is a happy ending, nor do I think it's a sad ending. All I know is it ends this story. But I tweak things in the story once in a while so there's still a chance that I end up writing a happy ending...just a chance 'coz I can't spill everything. _

_Ooh and I know, I'm prolonging the agony. I'm so sorry. It's a very messy thing, you see - revealing what Sakura did to Sasuke. I'm trying to establish things first so people don't get that confused about it once it's revealed. _

_So here's another chapter for Scroll. Tell me what you think about it, okay? ^ _v

* * *

><p>Sasuke picked up the papers on the floor.<p>

The day had passed quickly. He had just finished giving Sakura her medicine and putting her back to sleep. He had decided to clean the house, especially Sakura's make-shift office since he still couldn't fall asleep.

"_We, or rather a specific clan here that I unfortunately don't belong to, wield the chakra of everything around us," Daiki said. "That's why when someone tries to find us using chakra signatures, they get nothing but the things around us – plants, trees, animals, insects…no humans."_

Sasuke stiffened.

He couldn't help but remember his conversation with Daiki.

He had heard of ninjas having unique forms of ninjutsu that were unique only to their clan, like with Naruto's – the Uzumakis…But a clan from an ordinary village with a different kind of ninjutsu..?

Sasuke looked at the door.

There was another snow storm outside.

"_Do you know how to make snow storms?" Daiki asked. _

Was the snow storm for the past nights someone else's doing? Someone who was trying to hide Sakura's location from Houren's men?

If that was true, who was making them? Who was helping them?

"_You don't know, do you?" Daiki said realizing the answer behind Sasuke's stare. "That's going to be a bit of a problem. There are only two other things that can make a snow storm in this place. The first one is Mother Nature. The other one is the Snow Spirit. Since the Snow Spirit is nowhere to be found, we'll have to pray that Mother Nature keeps the snow storm coming."_

Sasuke sighed and went on to picking up the papers.

Some of them had black and white pictures drawn over it – the human body, a dissection of a human limb, a…deformed hand..?

"Skin lesions that resemble third degree burns on a patient's hand," Sasuke read the caption below it.

He didn't think Sakura could draw that well. It looked…disgusting.

He picked up another piece of paper on the floor. It had nothing but paragraphs on it.

"…Lasts for two weeks," Sasuke said reading a phrase from the paper.

He realized that the papers were supposed to be compiled as a book.

Sasuke scowled.

Sakura didn't put page numbers on the paper.

He wanted to just put them in a pile on her desk since it was basically her fault why the papers were disarranged.

But putting it in order, in Sakura's current condition, could sacrifice much of her time to finish the scroll.

"Hn," Sasuke muttered as he sat down and started sorting the pages.

"Development of the symptoms varies depending on the age of the patient," Sasuke read a line on one of the papers. "On the fourth week, the patient exhibited hematemesis," he read from another paper.

Sasuke scowled.

If he read each page, it would make no sense to him and it would take him days just to put the papers in order.

Sasuke sighed and gathered all the papers on the desk. While placing the papers on the table, he noticed a small drawer under the table's surface.

He pulled it out and found a small book inside.

He browsed the pages and stiffened.

It was a journal.

"On the fourth week, the patient exhibited hematemesis," Sasuke read on one of the pages.

He stared at the pile of papers he gathered.

It seemed to match what was on the papers. He would be able to use the journal to arrange the papers.

Sasuke scowled.

But he would have to read Sakura's journal without her permission.

He turned to look at the bedroom where Sakura slept in. He kept the door open so he could keep an eye on her, even when he was in another part of the house.

She was still sleeping.

Sasuke looked down at the journal.

It wasn't like he was going to read it because he wanted to read about himself. He wanted to read it so he would be able to help Sakura arrange the papers…and perhaps know more about what happened in the village…in Sakura's mission.

Sasuke turned the pages, looking for an entry that would talk about Sakura's first arrival in the village.

Since she came to the village to know more about the illness, she might also write something about the plague in her journal.

"When we came to the village, it looked more than a ghost town," Sasuke read on one of the pages. "It was a graveyard with corpses breathing and lying around unburied."

Sasuke's face grew grim.

* * *

><p>"The guard?" the man said as he folded his arms – his white fur coat tightening its grasp on his body. He stood across Kaitaro, who was sitting in his office with two cups of tea in front of him. "What did he tell him?"<p>

"He warned him about Houren's spy in the woods," Kaitaro answered. "Is that why you've been keeping this snow storm? Wouldn't it be dangerous?"

The man smirked. "To whom would it be dangerous, exactly?" he asked. "The only idiots who would go out in this storm are those worthy of being buried in the snow."

"That's not what I mean," Kaitaro said.

The man shrugged his shoulder. "I'm telling you," he said. "That kid has a head denser than ice. He believes this is part of his barrier around the village."

Kaitaro sighed and sipped his tea.

He had already put Keiko to sleep early so she didn't get too scared of the snow storm outside.

"You paid her a visit?" he asked the man.

The man's face grew serious. "About that," he said. "I believe the seal just broke."

Kaitaro nodded. "I was afraid of that," he said. "I think this was the exact day when she put that seal on herself. How long…How long will she live?"

"That depends on how smart this Uchiha is," the man answered.

"You want to use him?" Kaitaro asked staring confused at the man.

"It's not like I have a choice," the man said. "Jiro-kun is unconscious, not to mention miles away. And I can't involve anyone else in the village."

Kaitaro nodded.

"Besides," the man continued. "Houren's got his eyes on him too."

Kaitaro raised a brow at him. "Why would Houren want him?"

"He knows about his relationship with Sakura," the man answered. "And he's the only one who could give Sakura to him."

Kaitaro frowned. "Why would Sasuke-san give Sakura-san to him?"

"Trust me," the man said. "You don't want to know. Right now, I need to get to him first. I won't be able to stop him from surrendering her to Houren later on, but I'll still be able to use him after he gives her up. I just need him to trust me."

"You want him to meet you?" Kaitaro asked.

"I want **you** to make **him** meet **me**," the man said.

* * *

><p>"Is it really alright to trust those ninjas, Houren?" Akio asked Houren as he placed a cup of tea on Houren's table.<p>

Houren had begun to smoke some opium in his room while listening to the howling wind of the snow storm.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Houren asked puffing smoke in the air before sipping his tea.

"Those ninjas were from a hidden village that has a bad reputation," Akio said. "Even if they are against Konoha, how sure are we that they won't use the knowledge in the scroll against us?"

"We won't have to be sure about it," Houren said yawning. "They simply will."

Akio looked confused at Houren.

Houren smirked. "Those ninjas are desperate," he said. "…More desperate for vengeance than for power… That's their weakness. Because they think they're powerful enough to be rivals with Konoha, they look down on us and trust us. They think they can kill anyone here as easily as they can kill an ordinary man."

Houren looked up at Akio. "You have nothing to worry about, Akio," he said. "All I need to do is say the magic word, and their lungs will explode. They're breathing our air aren't they?"

Akio smiled and nodded.

* * *

><p>Sakura walked into the village with the four unmasked Anbu ninjas flanking her.<p>

They were told by a doctor named Kayuki Kaitaro that the village was in chaos and that the plague had made people open to the thought of letting outsiders in, hoping they held the cure to the illness. The team decided to head to the village, the Anbu team keeping their masks hidden to make sure they didn't frighten people.

The plague was said to have caused much emotional and psychological instability in the village.

Sakura and her team had waited for three weeks in the village down the mountain for this chance to get a closer look at what they could be dealing with.

Jirotaiku looked sharply at his surroundings.

The village looked more like a graveyard filled with snow and ash than a place where people lived.

Snow gently fell on their beige cloaks.

"I don't sense anyone," Gaita said, one of the Anbu ninjas flanking Sakura, as he let his grey eyes wander cautiously at the woods around them.

He felt the cold breeze blowing his shoulder-length black hair.

Nothing in the weather seemed amiss.

Sakura noticed how the walls protecting the village from the outside looked burned. The houses themselves looked like they were hit by a terrible storm.

"I sense someone," Jirotaiku said quickly stepping in front of Sakura.

The others also began to stand defensively around Sakura.

Sakura listened to the wind and kept her eyes out at the black and white scenery in front of her.

"Let me pass," she said.

Jirotaiku eyed her carefully for a moment before he let her walk away from them.

Sakura walked toward one of the piles of wood boards that had probably served as a house.

Jirotaiku carefully followed her.

Gaita followed them, keeping sharp glances at everything around them.

Sakura knelt down in front of the pile of wood. She lifted up some wooden boards and found something wrapped in muddy cloth.

Jirotaiku cursed, suddenly smelling something fowl coming from the pile of wood boards.

"It's an infant," Mito said, his blue eyes staring at the ball of rag as he stood behind Sakura.

"Dead..?" Izuki asked, scowling at the stench that touched his nose.

"Dying," Sakura said as she slowly lifted the infant out of the debris.

"Wait!" Jirotaiku cried, seeing a hand extend after Sakura pulled the infant out. He aimed a kunai at the hand.

It was then that they noticed what the hand looked like – a boney hand barely covered with flesh…flesh that was muddy, bloody and rotting – maggots crawling in and out of the holes and gashes in the hand.

Gaita and Mito winced, covering their noses as the smell reeked in the air.

"The mother," Izuki said.

Sakura nodded. "She's dead."

Jirotaiku lowered his kunai and looked at the infant in Sakura's arms.

It was a miracle that it survived after being trapped in the pile of debris with a rotting corpse.

Then again, the infant was dying. He could barely see its chest move for air.

Sakura gently lifted the muddy cloth that seemed to cover its face.

Gaita and Mito winced. Jirotaiku and Izuki cursed.

The child's face was filled with massive skin bumps and boils that seemed to have exploded. The wounded inflamed skin still bled.

They could barely see a face in the infant.

Sakura bit her lips and tried hard not to shed a tear for the child. She instead held the infant closer to her.

"That baby is dying," Jirotaiku said looking at Sakura.

"I said I needed a human subject to test the cure on," Sakura said, placing the tip of her fingers on the child's chest.

"You're going to test it in that infant?" Jirotaiku asked raising a brow at Sakura as green light flickered from her fingers.

"No," Sakura said. "I'm going to save this infant."

Sasuke closed the journal sighing.


	23. Chapter 23

_Thank you all so much again for reading and reviewing "Scroll."_

_Yes, Mathematica-chan. I try to upload every week. ^ _v

_Here's another chapter for this week. Do tell me what you think about it! _

* * *

><p>Sasuke stood up making sure that the papers he had arranged were neatly placed on the table, away from the pile of papers that still needed sorting.<p>

He also slipped the journal back into the drawer.

Sasuke tried to forget the image of the infant that Sakura found – the image she drew on the journal that she also drew on one of the papers.

It was more morbid than the experiments he had seen in Orochimaru's lair…and to think it was seen on an infant's face.

Sasuke walked to the room where Sakura slept.

He had read about the symptoms of the plague, how it began, how the people first reacted to the idea of having such an illness, how many of the village population was infected, how it caused anarchy…

Sasuke sat beside Sakura. He watched her face in the faint light of the lamp he lit inside the room.

It was just as the doctor said – several people woke up one morning with red itchy spots on their bodies. It swelled like the usual insect bite. But what puzzled them was the lack of insects that could bite them that much in the night.

The red spots appeared all over their bodies. According to Sakura's notes, it wasn't insect bites but blood clots in several tiny blood vessels. The clots somehow marked the spots where the patient's nerves were irritated, causing the itch.

That meant that the red spots were caused by something that was already happening inside their bodies.

The people who consulted the doctors were advised to monitor their body temperatures. They underwent various tests to check for internal hemorrhage.

The villagers decided to apply typical insect bite and skin rash balms on their skin, believing it would heal the red spots. They also used insect repellants that night to avoid the insects that they believed were behind it.

The next day however, the village woke up with frightening shrieks and heart-wrenching cries from children.

The red spots swelled. But it no longer resembled the usual swollen insect bite. They became bumps…bumps that grew in different sizes – the smallest was the size of an average pebble. The itch was replaced with pain – intense pain. The bumps felt like they were burning. And by burning, the children described it as similar to having their skin dangerously close to a flame.

By nightfall, the bumps on the skin of the children and the infants had grown to the size of stones – most of which began to burst like boils. Puss and blood streamed out of the skin.

Sasuke watched Sakura's fingers twitch…as if she was suddenly stung by something she touched.

He scooted closer to Sakura and combed her hair with his fingers.

Was she having a nightmare again? She seemed to have a lot of them every night. Perhaps that was why she stayed up late in the evening – she wanted to avoid them.

Was she having nightmares about the epidemic?

The day after the skin inflammations became boils, children around the age of 1 to three years old complained of severe stomach ache and muscle pains. Hours later, they began exhibiting hematemesis...

…They vomited blood.

They were confined in the village hospital that day only to die the following day.

When exhumed, they found exploded boils the size of rocks in their internal organs.

The next day, children around four to six who had the skin rash underwent the same symptoms. They suffered from very high fever and died of one of the following - multi-organ failure due to hypovolaemia or severe blood loss; of brain injury; or of cardiac arrest two weeks later.

The adults on the other hand took three weeks before the internal hemorrhage symptoms became apparent. Adults under the middle-aged bracket died four to six weeks after they vomited blood. Most of them died due to multi-organ failures. Some of them committed suicide to escape the pain of vomiting blood more than three times a day.

Other villagers started having rashes two to three weeks after fifteen percent of the first patients died. How they got the disease was unknown since most of them avoided contact with the people who were infected with the illness.

Sasuke watched Sakura breathe as she slept. He watched her chest heave for air. Sakura seemed like she was gasping for air. She breathed that way in her sleep ever since she fainted.

Sasuke recalled the entries in the journal…

…Increased respiratory rate…narrow pulse pressure…restlessness…sweating…paleness…

Sakura seemed to exhibit some of the symptoms of hypovolaemia. But the doctor said she just needed rest.

And if she was suffering from blood loss, shouldn't he see the blood going out of her body? Unless it's internal hemorrhage…But if that was the case, he didn't think Sakura would last that long.

Sasuke felt his chest grow numb at the image he was seeing in his mind – waking up the next day to see Sakura as pale as paper, lips and fingertips a deep shade of purple… a corpse.

Sasuke stood up and took the extra futon from the cabinet across the room. He placed it next to Sakura's and sat on it.

The journal said that the illness or the "plague" wasn't communicable. If it was, the doctors who treated the patients with the disease should have been infected with it, weeks after they took care of the first patients.

But they didn't get infected by the illness. They only got infected with the disease…with a different strain of the disease, after the illness itself was suppressed by the cure that Sakura formulated.

It was when the people began gaining their confidence back that the disease came back with a more fatal strain – a strain that Sasuke was yet to read in the journal.

Sasuke combed Sakura's hair with his fingers.

They were soft but dull and dry.

Sakura couldn't be sick of the illness that swept the village. It was already gone. Her cure killed it.

But what about the new strain of the illness?

Could Sakura be infected with the new strain?

* * *

><p>"Do you feel any pain now?" Kaitaro asked as he carefully put down his stethoscope.<p>

Two days had passed and the doctor visited Sakura to check on her condition.

She was better. She was able to stay awake for five hours, which was a great improvement considering that she barely woke up on her own a few days ago.

"No, I don't," Sakura answered keeping her eyes down on her lap as she sat on the futon.

Sasuke stood by the door, watching how the doctor examined her.

He was supposed to change her bandages when Sakura woke up and asked to see the doctor to check on her.

She wanted to get back into writing the scroll and she knew that the only way Sasuke would let her do so was if the doctor said she could do so.

…Which reminded Sasuke that he hadn't told her he knew something about her condition. He wondered when he would say it, and if he would confront her about the details he was yet to know about her illness.

"Are you sure?" Kaitaro asked looking into Sakura's pale green eyes. They were slightly paler than before. "Can you move your hands?"

"Yes," Sakura answered, rotating her wrists. She also clenched her fists and stretched her fingers. "I ate on my own this morning."

That was another big improvement – Sakura's ability to eat on her own again. She wasn't that helpless anymore.

Sasuke won't have to wake her up and feed her.

Kaitaro nodded. "In that case, you can go back to writing the scroll."

Sakura looked at the doctor and smiled. "Thank you," she said.

"But you can't work on it the way you've done so in the past," Kaitaro said before he turned to look at Sasuke. "Three hours. That's the longest time that she can work."

Sakura frowned.

Sasuke nodded.

Kaitaro stood up, taking his things in his arms. "She should take a nap after three hours. Her body hasn't recovered yet," he said. "I'll be off now. Keiko's alone in the clinic."

Sasuke walked the doctor out of the room.

"By the way," the doctor said before he stepped out of the door. "Haru-chan is celebrating her birthday today," he said turning to Sakura.

Sakura smiled. "She's two years old today, correct?"

"Yes," he said. He turned to Sasuke. "We'll be having a small celebration for her. You're invited."

Sasuke raised a brow at the doctor.

"You're supposed to be my assistant," Kaitaro said.

"The doctor's right," Sakura said. "You should go."

Sasuke looked at Sakura and noticed how sad her smile was.

It was as if…she wanted to be in the celebration.

Did she personally know the child?

"The celebration will be in two hours," Kaitaro said. "Just meet me and Keiko in the clinic," he added before he walked out of the room.

Sasuke followed him and walked him to the front door.

"Haru-chan is Sakura-san's first patient," Kaitaro whispered as he walked out of the porch.

Sasuke stared surprised at Kaitaro.

He suddenly wondered what the child looked like.

If she was her first patient, she was probably that infant Sakura wrote about in her journal – the test subject of the cure she made. So the infant turned out to be a girl.

Did the illness leave scars on the child?

Kaitaro raised a brow at Sasuke. "You seem to know something about Haru-chan."

"I arranged her notes," Sasuke answered.

Kaitaro stared at Sasuke for a moment before he chuckled. "So you've read about her," he said. For a moment there, he thought Sasuke knew everything already. But since he hadn't gone mad at him, he figured he had only read portions of Sakura's notes. "In that case you **must** see her. You'll be surprised."

Surprised because of how mangled the child's face is?

…Or surprised because she didn't look like she had those wounds? After all, most of the people in the village looked like they didn't experience a face-deforming epidemic.

"I'll see you later," the doctor said as he walked away from Sasuke leaving foot prints on the snow.

Sasuke watched him until he disappeared into the woods before he walked back into the house.

Sakura was already on her feet and leaning on the door frame for support.

Sasuke sighed and quickly lifted her from the ground – his arms gently cradling her weight.

"Wait!" Sakura cried out, struggling to get her feet back on the floor. "The doctor said I can work again!"

"Hn," Sasuke said as he walked to Sakura's make-shift office and sat her near the table.

Sakura stared confused at Sasuke. "You're…You're not against this."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and walked into the room to find something else to wear for the celebration.

Sakura sighed and looked down at her table.

She had been a burden to Sasuke again, just like she always was.

She really did the right thing four years ago.

Sakura suddenly noticed something off with the table and raised a brow. It was too…neat.

She stiffened.

Sakura stealthily pulled out the drawer and saw her journal tucked inside it – front flap on top.

That wasn't how she left it.

Did Sasuke read it? Did he read everything that happened in the "plague?" Did he read about how she made the cure…? How she came up with it..? That she requested to be sent there..? Why she wanted to be sent there..?

What she did to him four years ago..?

Sakura anxiously looked at the door of the room.

Did he know about her condition?


	24. Chapter 24

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing Scroll! ^ _v _^ I'm really sorry if it seems like I'm just dragging the story. But that's really how the plot goes. I think it's because I don't believe Sasuke would take everything that he needs to know, well in one sitting. _

_Anyway, here's the chapter for this week. Do tell me what you think about it!_

* * *

><p>"You're scaring my friends," Keiko said, glaring up at Sasuke as he stood near the door of the house where the celebration was being held.<p>

He had been standing there since they walked in - watching the doctor greet some of the villagers who were also invited in the celebration.

It was a small gathering. There were only eight other people in the house – four women, two men that included Daiki, and two children that Keiko treated as her friends.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and tried to look normal…despite worrying about how Sakura was doing alone in the house up the mountain.

What if someone attacked the house?

No. He had traps set up.

What if they were skillful enough to get away from them?

No. Sakura had Tsunade's strength. She can kick them all to hell.

Or could she even do so..?

"Loosen up," Daiki said slapping Sasuke in the back. "You're in a safe place."

Sasuke glared up at him.

Being in a 'safe place' was the least of his concerns.

Daiki chuckled. "I'm serious," he said. "These people are allies. They believe she's innocent."

Sasuke's eyes softened. He looked at the people that the doctor was speaking with.

They were some of the people in the market who didn't stare or glare at him when he first went there with Keiko and Kaitaro.

"All of us know that Haru-chan won't be celebrating her birthday today if it weren't for her," Daiki said. "Ever since they brainwashed the people to believe that **she** was an enemy, people who sided with her fell ill. We've kept our mouths shut to stay alive."

So the disease wasn't really just something biological. It was just as Sakura believed – it could be controlled to infect certain people.

That must be the reason why nations were after it. And why Konoha had to get the information about the disease before other ninja villages did – Konoha could be wiped out without them even knowing it.

…But if they really believed in Sakura's innocence…if they really admired her…if they really owed her that much… Why didn't they fight for her?

…Because they were scared of dying..? Was that really enough reason to just shut up and just shut their eyes at the fact that the villagers who owed their lives to her, believed false truths about her?

Sasuke frowned…his chest growing numb.

Sakura served them that long only to be insulted and accused wrongly by the people she saved.

"Let me get Haru-chan," said one of the women that the doctor spoke to. Sasuke recalled that she was introduced to him as Najiko Choko, the infant's guardian.

Choko had cared for the infant ever since Sakura took the baby away from the rotting arms of its deceased mother.

Choko walked into one of the rooms of the small house and walked out with a plump ball of blanket, the infant, in her arms – Haru.

Sasuke stared at her…amazed at how different she was from what Sakura drew in the journal.

Her cheeks, both round and rosy, were smooth and free from scars. He never would have guessed that they were the parts where most of the boils and severe lesions were.

"Happy birthday, Haru-chan!" Keiko excitedly greeted the infant, grasping the baby's plump fingers and shaking them.

The baby stared at Keiko for a moment – her round brown eyes taking in the image of the girl's face…

...And giggled.

The guests couldn't help but smile at the infant.

Sasuke smirked.

Little Haru looked like an average healthy human infant. No one would have ever guessed that she was almost dead when Sakura found her.

The guests each greeted the infant, placing kisses on her soft cheeks and making her laugh.

"Come meet Sasuke-san!" Keiko said as if the infant could understand her.

The guests chuckled and Choko nodded.

"Sasuke-san," Kaitaro said turning to Sasuke. "This is Haru-chan."

Choko walked closer to Sasuke to give him a closer look at the infant.

Haru stared at him. Sasuke wasn't smiling at her like the other people in the house did.

Sasuke thought it was awkward and stupid, but he knew that everyone in the room expecting him to do it.

…So he did it.

"Happy birthday, Haru-chan," he greeted with a smirk on his face – the smirk that always made his fan girls faint long enough for him to get away from them.

Haru just stared at him.

The smirk didn't affect her. She was, after all, a baby.

The others noticed how Haru was trying to adjust herself to Sasuke's presence. Choko chuckled and offered Haru to Sasuke.

"Here, Sasuke-san," she said. "You can hold her."

Sasuke stood back. "I…I don't think I…"

"Nonsense," Daiki said pushing Sasuke forward. "I'm sure that as a doctor's assistant, you've attended to babies like Haru-chan," he said smirking at him.

Sasuke glared at him. "I haven't assisted pediatricians," he muttered.

"Then congratulations," he said chuckling at Sasuke. "You're getting a crash course," he said pushing Sasuke further.

Sasuke found himself staring at Haru, who was at that moment staring curiously at him.

"It's alright, Sasuke-san," Kaitaro assured him.

…As if it was actually what he needed to have at that moment.

It was the first step to revealing everything to Sasuke - letting him know it on his own so the truth sunk in.

Sasuke reached out his hands to hold Haru.

It was just holding an infant after all. Getting in a mission to kill Madara was more terrifying than carrying a baby.

For a moment he thought he saw flashes of images he remembered from that dark day...blood dripping on the crushed stone debris...explosions, blinding blasts and lightning strikes...stench of smoke and coal...

_"Is that all you've got?" _he heard himself say as he saw an image of a muddy and bloody Naruto kneeling on the ground, gasping for air.

Sasuke felt the baby's weight in his arms and reflexively held her closer. She was soft and heavy. And he couldn't help but feel comfortable around her.

It was as if he had known her for quite a while.

Sasuke held her closer to hist chest - the infant's heart beating against his own. Her heart beat was slightly faster than his own.

Then he felt something against his chest...a sudden current that faded away...a current that he felt was somehow famil…

It surged again.

Sasuke stiffened.

It was faint. It subsided after a couple of heart beats but it was there…it was THERE.

Haru was Sakura's first patient - the one she wrote about in the journal...the infant she picked up under a pile of debris…

…But she didn't have the scars that should be on her face…the scars that should be left by those hideous lesions…She didn't look like she even got sick.

Haru stared up at him – her round brown eyes boring into his dark ones…

Why was it there? Why did he feel it? HOW DID IT GET THERE?

Kaitaro knew by Sasuke's surprised expression that he felt something – something Jirotaiku felt when he held Haru-chan for the first time.

Sasuke couldn't keep his eyes away from Haru's.

He still couldn't understand how it happened. He tried to concentrate...to check if he was just overthinking it.

But it was still there…faint but STILL THERE.

After a moment of observing Sasuke, Haru chuckled.

The others in the room laughed as well. Choko then invited everyone to eat.

Sasuke stayed in his place, pondering on what was going on.

Kaitaro approached Sasuke as the others went in to the dining room - his eyes watching Sasuke's face.

He knew what Sasuke was thinking…that he was calculating the possibility of the event…that he was wondering why it happened…

"Sasuke-san..?" he said and it snapped Sasuke back into reality.

Sasuke turned to the doctor.

"HOW?" Sasuke asked - eyes glaring at the doctor, threatening to tell him the truth or else all hell will break lose.

Was Haru Sakura's daughter, and not the infant she wrote about in the journal? Was that why she wanted to be in the celebration? Was Haru Jirotaiku's child? Did she place some of her chakra on the child to protect her?

Was the child the reason why Sakura stayed in the village?

Kaitaro sighed.

The only way to lead Sasuke to **him** was to tell him about it, one step at a time.

"What do you mean by 'how?'" the doctor asked.

Sasuke glared coldly at the doctor. "How come I feel Sakura's chakra in this child?"

Haru just stared up at Sasuke while she unconsciously began to nibble on her plump fingers.

* * *

><p>Sakura slowly dipped the tip of the quill into the bottle of ink. She gently lifted up and lightly scribbled it on the paper as she read the note that the doctor slipped into her blanket earlier that day while he checked her condition.<p>

…Body temperature - 39 degrees.

…Blood pressure – 90/70.

…Increased number of subcutaneous bruising.

It was the doctor's observation records for the past days that she was unconscious. Since she was too unconscious to keep track of it herself, the doctor made notes of the changes in her condition.

…Maximum radii of bruises – 6 inches...mostly found in the legs.

…Maximum radii of bruises in the arms – 4 inches.

… Purple bruises observed two weeks prior, show no sign of changing into a different color.

…Bruise size grows at approximately 12% in day.

That was interesting. The bruises were growing more rapidly than they should.

Sakura winced, suddenly feeling an intense pain boring into her chest.

She quickly grasped the skin above her sternum, hoping it would soothe the pain…but she knew it wouldn't do anything.

It won't fade.

…Unless it faded on its own…

"Sa…Sasu-k-ke-k-kun," she muttered as the pain intensified.

Somehow, after she woke up from her coma-like state, the chest pains felt more excruciating than before.

It felt like she was back in that moment where she received the wound in her chest – the wound that made it possible for her to do what she did to Sasuke.

Sakura whined and wheezed for air.

She didn't want to scream. After two…three…almost four years, she had learned how not to react to the pain.

But this time was different.

Tears streamed down her cheeks. She felt like her rib cage was being torn apart…her heart was constricting…her lungs, shrinking…

Sakura screamed.

If Jirotaiku was there, he would have panicked. He would have picked her up from the floor and carried her out the door to put her in the snow. He could have ransacked the cabinets for painkillers and injected her several volumes of medicine.

The sudden increased intensity of the chest pains must be caused by the complications. What she did was taking its toll on her...All those things that she had done while she was away from him…

Getting on the mission was a bad idea, but seeing him in the mission was worse.

She had it all planned. She had everything planned out from how she would leave from the village without anyone else knowing the real reason for doing so, to how she would end her life...

How could everything go wrong?

Sakura curled into a ball and sank on the floor – the quill dropping down on the table.

"P-please…s-stop-p," she whispered, though she knew he was too far away from her to hear it. The pain burned and grew. It was as if someone had lit a flame on her chest.

The pain spread. It spread through her heart…through her back muscles...through her spine…

Sakura cried out in agony.

"S-stop…p-please…" she sobbed. "S-Sa-suke…-kun…d-don't…d-don't…"

She felt her innards twist painfully. Her heart was beating fast and excruciatingly.

She wanted to just lose consciousness but the pain kept her awake.

"S-stop," she wheezed. "…P-plea-se...D-don't get m-mad…"


	25. Chapter 25

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing "Scroll." ^ _v_ ^ I'm reading a lot of theories about what's going on in the story. And I see that a lot of them are close to what's happening. I'm glad you're enjoying the plot so far!_

_Here's the chapter for Scroll this week. Don't hesitate to tell me what you think about it! _^ v *

_note:_ _I'm not that sure with some of the facts here. If you ever get to notice it, do tell me :) Thanks!_

* * *

><p>"Let me take Haru-chan," the doctor said as he kept his eyes away from Sasuke's glare.<p>

Sasuke handed the child to Kaitaro but kept his glare at the doctor.

Haru stared at the doctor before she glanced innocently back at Sasuke.

Kaitaro smiled at Haru. "This room is protected so I guess it's alright," he said. "How much have you uncovered from her notes?"

"Symptoms, time frames, victims," Sasuke answered.

Kaitaro smirked. "You haven't read enough about the disease then."

"You're all afraid you'll get infected if you talk about it," he said.

Kaitaro nodded. "You know it's controlled by someone."

"Houren and his men," Sasuke answered.

Kaitaro looked up at Sasuke and chuckled. "Just Houren," he said.

"How is it possible?" Sasuke asked. "How was he able to control who would be infected and who wouldn't."

"I'm afraid only Sakura-san knows the answer to that," the doctor said.

Sasuke stiffened.

That was why Houren hated anyone who sided with Sakura. That was why whoever showed a connection to Sakura became Houren's enemy.

Sakura knew how he controlled the disease…probably even how he made it.

And she hid in the woods with only Kaitaro and Keiko knowing where she was.

…THE SCROLL.

Could Houren know something about the scroll?

… And the Anbu ninjas…those who got infected with the new strain of the disease… They knew something about it, didn't they?

They might even be the ones who discovered it.

That's why they fell ill and died.

But to be able to pinpoint who in the village would get sick…was similar to using a ninjutsu against an enemy.

Could Houren be conjuring chakra? Could he have used chakra signatures to identify who got sick and died?

If that was the case, where would he get such knowledge? They said the villagers had secluded themselves for so many years.

They weren't even supposed to be aware of ninjas until a couple of years ago – when Sakura and the team of Anbu ninjas came to help them in the plague.

Where did Houren learn such a devastating technique?

Could he have spoken with Orochimaru about it?

No. Sasuke would have known about it.

And he didn't recall any chakra technique that caused such illness.

Kaitaro smiled and offered Sasuke to sit down. He himself took a seat in the living room with Haru on his lap.

The others seemed to have understood that he and the doctor were having a serious conversation. They didn't seem bothered that Sasuke and the doctor weren't in the dining area with them.

"You are most aware of how energy or chakra affects the building blocks of the human body," Kaitaro said. "We doctors might be able to give humans medicines, or perform surgery, but we do not have the ability to control how a patient's energy flows and works throughout their body. You and your fellow ninjas do, and I think, most especially your medic ninjas like Sakura-san."

Sasuke kept a straight face.

Sakura used her chakra to heal her patients. It must have been how she healed the people from the illness.

But he didn't know that a medic ninja leaves some of his/her chakra in her patient.

Medic ninjas use their chakra to control someone else's body cells - at least that was what he knew. Once they were done with healing someone, the chakra they used get's absorbed by their patients, like in cases where they replenish a patient's chakra with their own.

It loses the signature to the receiver of the chakra – the medic ninja's donated chakra becomes part of the patient's own chakra.

So why sense the chakra on the infant?

The only logical explanation was that the chakra Sakura placed in the infant wasn't just to replenish the baby's weakened chakra.

It had another function…a function where it kept Sakura's signature despite being inside another body.

It seemed to resemble the case of the nine-tailed fox in Naruto's body - it was alive.

"Haru-chan here was her first human test subject," Kaitaro said. "But she never took Haru's death as a possible outcome of the cure she came up with. The first treatments Sakura-san gave her partially improved her condition. But several days later, Haru-chan's body began to drastically deteriorate. She was already hooked in several make-shift medical equipments when Sakura-san found the best treatment for her."

Kaitaro could still remember how relieved Sakura was when she examined Haru-chan that morning and realized that her treatment worked…and how angry Jirotaiku was when he first held the sleeping Haru in his hands.

Haru-chan's condition greatly improved after a week. She no longer needed to be hooked up in a set of complicated machines to breathe. So Sakura decided to move her into a different room.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" he heard Jirotaiku say.

Kaitaro was on his way to one of the rooms in the hospital when he walked by Haru's room.

Curious, he decided to take a look at what was going on.

"What do you mean?" he heard Sakura ask.

He soon noticed that Jirotaiku had the sleeping Haru-chan in his arms. He was glaring angrily at Sakura while Sakura only stared apathetically at him.

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about!" Jirotaiku said. "Why did you put some of your chakra in this child? Are you really out of your mind? How long are you planning to keep your chakra here, huh?"

Sakura turned away from Jirotaiku. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't you DARE turn your back at me when I'm talking to you!" Jirotaiku said. "What are you planning to do to help these people? Give ALL of them some of your chakra? Are you AWARE of how MANY of them are out there? YOU'LL DIE BEFORE YOU CURE LESS THAN HALF OF THEM!"

Kaitaro stiffened.

He didn't think the ninjas they sought help from would risk their lives that way to help people they didn't know.

Kaitaro watched Sakura sigh. "If this is of any help to you," she began. "She's the only one I'll give part of my chakra to."

Jirotaiku's face softened.

"I just wanted to see if that technique would work," Sakura said. "I know I'll die before I save less than half of them if I apply this technique to all of them."

Kaitaro watched Jirotaiku sigh. "What are you planning to do then?"

"The disease," Kaitaro told Sasuke. "As you may already know by observation, is an energy that is causing the cells of the body to develop a peculiar illness with several fatal complications. And since it's a form of energy, even if we give our patients medicines to stop the cells from deteriorating, the cells will only go back to its ill state due to the energy controlling it."

"Sakura used her chakra to suppress the energy causing the illness," Sasuke said.

Kaitaro nodded. "She used a similar method to help the other villagers," he said. "What that method was exactly, I don't know. What I'm sure of though, is that only Haru-chan here has a part of her chakra."

Sasuke looked at the infant on Kaitaro's lap.

She had pulled off one of her socks and found her plump big toe tempting enough to bite.

Haru-chan was two years old, but other than her chubby physique, she didn't look like she was that old.

Kaitaro smiled down at Haru-chan. He tried to stop Haru-chan from biting her big toe but her head shakily followed her big toe whenever he gently pulled it away from her face.

"The illness had damaged some of her brain cells," Kaitaro said. "But she's slowly recovering. She still hasn't learned how to crawl or speak though, as you can see. It's normal for children to learn those a bit later than the others so we're sure she'll still grow up as healthy as an average child does in a few years or so."

Sasuke watched Haru stare up at him innocently.

She couldn't bite her toe anymore because the doctor had to put her socks back on her foot.

Sasuke saw Haru stretch her hands up toward him – her tiny hands stretching her fingers wide and curling themselves into fists several times.

Kaitaro chuckled. "She likes you," he said.

Sasuke frowned at Haru.

…Great…Another fan girl in the making.

Haru's eyes looked pleadingly at Sasuke – her lips pouting into an 'o.'

Kaitaro chuckled. "Will you carry her to the dining room?" he asked Sasuke.

Sasuke suddenly felt…scared…

It was odd – feeling Sakura's chakra and seeing a different face.

Sasuke lifted Haru up from the doctor's lap and held her close to his chest. Haru buried her head into the crook of his neck.

Kaitaro chuckled. "Let's go have dinner."

* * *

><p>Sakura tried her best to stand up.<p>

Explosions and crackling sounds echoed everywhere. The storm wasn't helping. The dark clouds and the cold pouring rain made the gloomy landscape more depressing.

It was supposed to be a great day despite how horrible everything looked like.

Madara had been defeated. The war was finished.

But Sasuke had to be selfish and evil enough to continue his duel with Naruto. And Naruto had to be idiot enough to accept it.

"Should we do something?" Sakura heard Kiba as she tried to stand up from the muddy ground.

She had used much of her chakra fighting enemies and healing wounded ninjas. She had several scrapes and bruises all over her body.

Sakura shakingly looked up to see the blinding blasts on the vast barren plain below the hill where she and the others stood.

She could barely see the two of them, but they were there. She could feel them. And every minute or so, they would see gusts of smoke on the ground, crackling lightining, whirls of wind...

And they knew where on the dead plain Sasuke and Naruto were.

"There's nothing we can do," Shikamaru said as he sat on the hill – his eyes watching how the two made gigantic holes on the rocky plain.

Ino sat beside him – her arms on his shoulders. "But they're going to kill themselves!" she cried.

"If we go anywhere near them, they'll kill us," Shikamaru said. "Or at least Sasuke will."

Sakura stared blankly at the sight.

She didn't want it to happen. She didn't expect it to happen.

Sasuke and Naruto were just working together to kill Madara several hours ago.

But at that moment…they were doing what she didn't want them to do.

She knew it was possible to happen.

NO.

It was **bound** to happen.

Naruto told her so, and Kakashi-sensei warned her about it.

But it still hurt to see it happening…To watch them killing each other.

Sakura suddenly felt someone hug her tight.

"Sakura," she heard Ino whisper into her ear.

It was then that she realized that tears were streaming down her face.

"It's not your fault," she heard Tenten say as she sat close to her.

"Naruto-kun will save him," she heard Hinata say as she sat down and held one of her muddy hands. "I just know he will."

Sakura stared at everyone for a moment and realized that the other ninjas also had their eyes on her – Shikamaru, Kiba, Choji, Shino, Neji who was half carrying an unconscious Rock Lee, Gaara, Temari and Kankuro…Even Sai who was standing behind her watched her with what seemed like empathy in his eyes.

Everyone was as soiled, wounded, and bloody as her but they stood strong around her.

She knew she should feel grateful at everyone's efforts to comfort her, but she felt more ashamed of herself.

She was still weak.

…Too weak…Extremely weak.

She wasn't fit to be there in their midst.

She was a disgrace to every ninja in the world.

Sakura looked away from them and kept her eyes on the clashing chakras on the plain below.

She didn't speak. She was too angry at herself to say anything.

She soon felt everyone's comforting glances turn into glances of pity.

She looked pitiful – face blank, tears streaming down her cheeks, mute…

She knew that everyone thought she was in a state of shock.

"Foolish little brother," Sakura heard Itachi's voice echo inside her head. "If you wish to kill me, hate me, detest me. And yet survive in an unsightly way."

Sakura's vision turned blurry.

She suddenly found herself in the village – in the ghost town residence of the Uchiha clan where bloody bodies were splayed out on the ground.

Itachi stood in front of her – his red eyes boring holes into her eyes.

She felt her limbs shiver, her heart beat faster…

Fear…devouring her.

"Run," she heard him say. "Run and cling to life, and when you have the same eyes as mine, come to me."

She then heard deafening screams behind her.

She turned her head and found herself running down the white dark hospital corridors. She saw the door she was looking for at the end of the hallway and pushed it open to see Sasuke…

…Sasuke standing on his bed as the Anbu ninjas that were supposed to guard him lay lifeless and bloody on the white-tiled floor.

There was nothing but savagery in his face as currents of electricity ran danced in the air.

Sakura froze.

She watched his eternal mangekyo sharingan stare into her green eyes.

He smirked. "Sa-ku-ra," he said. "You do love me, don't you?"

She suddenly saw him standing just a few steps in front of her.

"I hate to break it to you though," he said as he lifted the katana he took from one of the Anbu ninjas he killed. Electric currents crackled as it surrounded the blade.

Sakura gasped, suddenly feeling Sasuke's breath against her lips.

"I have no use for weaklings like you," he whispered before a burning pain surged into her chest.

Sakura opened her eyes and saw the open door of the house she had stayed in for the past two years.

Her heart was still beating painfully against her chest and her limbs were shivering.

"It's all coming back," she heard a familiar voice say.

"It should," she said weakly as she forced herself to sit up. "You put me to sleep?"

"No," he answered as he sat across her on the floor. "You were unconscious when I found you. I lent you some of my chakra."

Sakura sighed. "Thank you," she said. "I owe you a lot already."

"Don't thank me yet," he said. "I'm planning on going against your plan."

Sakura chuckled. "You've always been planning to go against my plan," she said, smiling at him. "What is it this time?"

"Houren is after him," he said.

Sakura looked away.

"He knows who he is and his connection to you. I'm afraid if I don't do something, your village will lose its existence," he said. "You know I owe them greatly for making you."

Sakura sighed. "When do you plan to move?"

"About that," he said. "The flower is wilting."

Sakura looked up at him. "How long would it take?"

"One…Two weeks at the most," he answered. "And his traps will be of no use. Houren has made an agreement with the Oto ninjas who are, by the way, the latest group of ninjas to show interest in the plague. They are allowed to search the other part of the woods but not this one. Houren's legion of puppets will be patrolling in this part of the forest. I believe Houren knows you're hiding somewhere here. How exactly, I am yet to find out."

"He'll kill you if you continue this double agent act you're doing," Sakura said smirking.

"It's not like anyone's paying me to do it," he said. "I personally want him down his throne. And there is no way he can kill me. I'm an immortal for a reason, you know."

Sakura chuckled. "Of course," she said. "In that case, I don't think there's anything else I can say to stop you."

The man stood up and lightly dusted his white fur coat.

"Can I ask you a favour, though," Sakura said looking down at her messy table.

She noticed the diagonal black line that ran across the paper – a line she probably made when she lost grip on the quill.

The man looked down at Sakura. "That depends," he said.

Sakura scowled and looked up at him. "This is the first time that I'll actually ask you one," she said. "And you're restricting me?"

The man frowned. "This has something to do with suicide, yes?" he said. He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine. What do you want?"

"Keep him away from me a day before the flower wanes."

The man stared incredulously at Sakura. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" he asked.

"Maybe," Sakura said, yawning.

The man watched her for a moment and noticed how much paler she was. Her eyes were drooping again.

"If that is what you wish," the man said before he turned away from her and vanished out the door.

Sakura chuckled.

Everything would end soon.


	26. Chapter 26

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll'!_

_I'm terribly sorry for the confusion on the flashbacks, _**kuromimi**_. * . * I'm trying not to use that method of overtly typing 'Flashback' or making the flashback aesthetically obvious to readers because I'm looking for a smoother way of doing the transitions. Like in movies where you don't really see the word 'flashback' on the screen but you know it's a flashback? I'll look for another way of doing the transition to flashback. Thank you so much for pointing that out! ^ _v_ ^  
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_Thanks, Mathamatica-chan! ^ _v_ ^_ I didn't think my story looked good enough to find in the bookshelf. I'm made this story on my own_. I'm a fiction writer by heart. I've written several fiction stories and novels. I've uploaded two of my short stories on . I don't like writing stories by copying other stories and just changing their characters, if that's what you meant by me "copying this story" from another story. I really thought of the plot on my own. If you find another story that goes the way this story does, I assure you I haven't read it. I came up with this story because I wanted Sakura to die in the Naruto series (not that I'm now giving everyone the end of 'Scroll')._

_I understand it's irritating to read about Sasuke's chest growing numb 2OatmealCookies. But I can't just quit talking about it at the moment ^ _v_ ^ The numbing will stop in the future chapters though. As for the Sasu-Saku moments, I'm sorry. I've been trying to put it in, but it always ends up making the plot too sweet and too off for the story. But I've been successful in including some Sasu-Saku moments in the future chapters. _

_Anyway, here's the next chapter. Do tell me what you think about it!  
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* * *

><p>Sasuke couldn't help but stare at the snowy path as he trudged home with a furoshiki cloth folded into a bag in his hand.<p>

What the doctor told him about Haru constantly rang in his ears.

Sakura gave the child some of her own chakra to suppress the chakra that was causing the illness. If the negative energy or the chakra did exist, why didn't he feel another chakra inside Haru other than Haru's and Sakura's?

The doctor didn't seem to be lying. In fact, he looked more cooperative with him that time when it came to information about the plague.

Sasuke suddenly felt his chest grow numb.

Something was up.

…Something that would involve him.

…Something that would need his help.

Sasuke sighed.

He kept the thought about what that something was at the very back of his mind's closet.

Sasuke looked up to see the house.

It seemed to be in the same state that he left it in just a few hours ago.

But this time, there was someone sitting on the edge of the porch – feet submerged in the snow.

Sasuke stiffened but quickly felt relieved after he saw that someone move her pink hair-covered head up, as if she was looking up at the ceiling.

She was conscious.

Sasuke sighed and quickly walked up the house.

"How long have you been there?" Sakura heard Sasuke ask from behind her.

She turned to look at him. "You're home," she said. "How was the celebration?"

"She's healthy," Sasuke answered, sensing how Sakura wanted to know more about Haru's state than what they served for Haru's birthday.

Sakura chuckled, and he saw the Sakura he grew up with in Team 7.

"That's good," she said before turning away from him.

"I brought food," Sasuke said, raising the bag he held.

Sakura smiled. "Choko-san is a great cook," she said.

"Hn," Sasuke said as he walked into the house and placed the bag in the kitchen. He walked out to get Sakura back inside.

Sakura had her eyes fixed at the blurry horizon.

The fog had covered the view.

Sasuke knelt beside her, planning to lift her up from her seat.

"They said if you run along this path," Sakura said ignoring Sasuke's close proximity. "You'll reach Konoha."

Sasuke stiffened. He looked up at her and saw her smiling at the horizon.

"We'll be back in Konoha once you finish the scroll," he said looking down at the floor and trying to go back to lifting her up from the floor.

He felt his chest grow numb.

Sakura took a deep breath and sighed. "You haven't told me how Naruto and the others are," she said. "And Ino and Shikamaru..! Are they married?"

"Let's get you back inside and I'll tell you," Sasuke said, lifting her up from the cold floor – pulling her legs up from the snow.

He noticed how muddy her legs were.

"I have to change your bandages," he said as he walked inside with Sakura.

She was lighter than she was a few days ago. And she seemed paler. But it could just be caused by the cold weather.

Sasuke sat her down on the mat-covered floor.

"Do I tow your legs first?" he asked, suddenly feeling anxious about changing her bandages.

This was the first time he would do it to her. He had a lot of practice in the clinic but he didn't know what kind of wounds her bandages were covering.

The doctor said it was second…third degree burns. But Kaitaro was lying to him when he talked about the fire in the hospital.

Perhaps there were some truth in it, but he was sure that there were lies too.

What if it wasn't just burns? What if it was cut wounds? Deep Scrapes..?

"No," Sakura answered. "Just leave it like that."

Sasuke nodded before he quickly went to the bedroom and took his first aid kit from his bag.

He checked its contents and saw the pouch of medicine that Naruto gave him before he left his apartment – his stash of medicines that Sakura made.

They said it healed wounds quickly.

Sasuke stood up and went to the kitchen to prepare the other things that he needed.

* * *

><p>"I need to barrow Keiko-chan," the man told Kaitaro as he stood across the doctor's living room. He had the hood of his white fur coat over his head.<p>

The doctor raised a brow at him.

"He needs to know about the flower," the man said. "If he learns it from you, it would be too obvious. Houren would notice that Sasuke's in on the game."

Kaitaro sighed. "So she'll plant the idea into his mind," he said. "And he'll come to me for answers."

"Yes," he said. "And even if you hear anything important about Houren's plans, do not in anway keep him away from that information."

Kaitaro raised a brow at him. "How about you tell me what I need to ignore," he said.

"He's planning to have a bon fire," the man replied. "That's all I can tell you since I'm bound to him."

Kaitaro gasped. "This can't happen though," he said. "The flower is-"

"Wilting," the man finished. "She wants him out of the way when it dies."

"Then there won't be a purpose in all of this!" Kaitaro said. "Aren't we planning on saving her?"

"We are," he said. "But I need to give him as much information as I can, and we can't do it without sacrificing her safety. And I must say, she has a point in keeping him away at that moment. Houren would be too busy burning Sakura-san that he won't notice my absence."

"BUT WHY TELL SASUKE THIS PIECE OF INFORMATION WHEN IT WON'T HELP HER GET OUT IN THIS MESS AT ALL?"

"Trust me, child. I know what I'm doing."

Kaitaro sighed and thought for a moment. "She's sleeping in her room," he said.

The man nodded and headed out to the hallway.

"Do you need to get her out of the house?" Kaitaro asked.

"No," the man answered. "Just keep your doors and windows shut."

* * *

><p>Sasuke gently lifted the bandage from Sakura's left leg.<p>

He had been removing the bandage from her leg for some time and it was then that he noticed how many times it was wound around her leg.

Sakura didn't seem to mind how long it took him to take the bandage off. In fact her face was blank.

Sasuke lifted a part of the bandage again and saw a badly stained portion of the bandage – the last layer of the bandage that directly touched her wounds.

He glanced up at Sakura to see if she felt any pain.

She just kept her eyes on her legs.

Sasuke continued with removing the bandages and soon came to the need to lift the last layer of the bandage.

He gently pulled it up and noticed that it seemed to be glued to the skin underneath it.

Sasuke stiffened.

…If that was the case…

"Just pull it," Sakura said.

He looked up at her and saw nothing but apathy on her face.

"It's alright," she said. "Just pull it."

Sasuke looked down at the bandage he held and tried not to let his hands shake in anxiety. He pulled the bandage up, pulling with it, no doubt, part of the skin where it was attached to.

Surely if some skin would stick on the bandage, it was just a very thin layer, right? And perhaps some hardened blood and-

Sasuke lifted the bandage up so he could see the other side of the bandage.

He froze.

DID HE JUST PEEL OFF SOME OF SAKURA'S FLESH?

The bandage had a bloody sheet of something that seemed too thick to be just the surface of the skin, or a patch of hardened blood.

And on the part of the leg where he lifted the bandage from was a bleeding tissue. It didn't seem to have any skin covering it.

It was just plain bleeding uneven flesh.

He couldn't keep his hands from shaking. His chest felt numb.

"Don't worry," Sakura said in a tone that didn't seem to realize how Sasuke just peeled off a part of her flesh. But her eyes were on her bleeding leg. "It does that," she continued. "Just pull the bandage off."

Sasuke did what she told and pulled the bandage off, peeling some of the skin and flesh with every repeated tug he made on the strip of cloth.

By the time he was finished, her left leg looked more like a long chunk of bleeding meat that was feasted on by a group of scavenger birds.

Sasuke put the used bandage beside him, trying hard to ignore what he had done to Sakura's leg.

He was right.

It wasn't just burns. For her skin to be torn away like that, it had to be…It had to be…

Sasuke swallowed the lump forming in his throat. He lifted the towel soaked in the bucket of warm water that he prepared earlier and gently squeezed the water over Sakura's leg.

He glanced up at her and saw her bite her lower lip.

But she didn't wince. She didn't show how painful it was.

She didn't cry.

Sasuke looked down at her leg and lightly patted the bleeding flesh with the wet towel.

The white towel immediately turned scarlet.

He soaked the towel in the bucket of water to clean it but the bucket of water only turned red.

Sasuke did the same step – drying the leg of as much as blood as possible, so the medicine didn't get washed away by the blood.

By the time he was done washing her leg, the mat and the floor were already full of blood mixed with water. He had to change the mat to make sure it didn't stain the new bandage.

He quickly pulled out one of Naruto's stash of Sakura's ointments from his first aid kit. He shakily opened it and quickly covered one side of the new bandages with it.

"This will hurt," he said as he started to cover her leg with the new bandage.

Sakura remained silent.

Worried, Sasuke looked up to check on her.

She was sleeping – blood streaming down her lower lip.

Sasuke's vision blurred. He looked away and quickly wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

He took a deep breath and finished covering her leg with the new bandage. He then did the same procedure with the other leg.

And as expected, the bandage on the right leg was as stuck on Sakura's flesh as the bandage on the left leg was. He again had to rip some of her flesh to get the bandage off. He changed the mat again before he wound the new bandage around the leg.

After securing the bandage, Sasuke sat down in front of Sakura to breathe.

His chest felt numb. The lump on his throat was hurting him. And he was breathing hard to keep himself composed.

He had seen so much blood shed and gore in his life. But doing what he just did…to Sakura who cared for him for so long…

Sasuke sighed and forced himself to stand. He knelt down next to Sakura and lifted her up from the floor.

He took her into the bedroom and put her down on the futon. He gently covered her with the blanket, making sure it didn't fall heavily on her legs.

Sasuke then stood up and went back to the mess in the livingroom without taking a glance at Sakura's face.

He quickly placed the stained bandages, mats, and towel in the burning hearth. They were too soiled for any form of washing to save.

He then started to mop the blood-stained floor, pouring soap and water on it before he wiped the stain with a rag.

The image of her legs kept flashing in his mind. He tried to put it away but the more he wanted to stop seeing it, the more he saw the images of what he just did…

…The more he realized whose blood it was that he was wiping on the floor.

Sasuke found his shoulders shaking. His vision blurred and his hands stopped wiping the floor.

He remembered how Sakura sat all the time in the house…how she acted so strong in front of him…how she sat on the edge of the porch to sink her legs in the snow…

…How it must have hurt when he left her legs in the bucket of warm water when he walked out of the house because she wanted Jirotaiku to take care of her.

His hands slowly pushed the rag across the floor.

He peeled off some of her flesh. He made her bleed. He made her suffer.

Tears fell down the rag, only to be absorbed by the cloth just like the blood that it wiped on the floor.

Sakura cared for him in jail despite how he treated her badly. She saved the villagers from death and constantly made efforts to keep them safe, despite knowing that many of the villagers wanted her dead.

After cleaning the floor, he washed his hands and drenched it with alcohol. He then wet a handkerchief and walked into the bedroom with his first aid kit.

He sat down beside Sakura and gazed at the dry blood on her lower lip.

He gently wiped the blood off with the handkerchief. He tried not to show any emotion as he cleaned the wound.

He then dabbed some of Sakura's ointment on her lower lip.

Sasuke froze as he gazed at Sakura's calm sleeping face.

Did Jirotaiku feel as guilty as he was when he changed her bandages? Did he peel off her skin the way he did when he tugged the bandage off?

Was Jirotaiku better at taking care of her?

Sasuke's vision blurred as he finished dabbing the ointment on her lower lip. He held Sakura's hand tight in his own.

If his theory about all that was going on was correct…if Sakura was indeed experiencing what he thought she was experiencing…

He felt the lump in his throat again. He couldn't breathe. His vision was blurring again.

Sasuke shook his head.

Everything was going to be okay. He would be back in Konoha with Sakura and the scroll. Team 7 would be complete again, just as Naruto wanted.

He stood up and walked to Sakura's table in the living room.

There were still a number of pages that needed sorting.

* * *

><p>"Keiko-chan," Keiko heard a familiar voice call.<p>

Keiko yawned and slowly opened her eyes – her blurry vision clearing to reveal a familiar image. She gasped in shock.

"Houre-!" Keiko rubbed her eyes and looked at the person in front of him again. "You're Hou-chan, right?"

The man chuckled. "Of course! I'm the only Houren in this village who can wear fur coats this stylishly," he said.

Keiko giggled. "That's right! You're the cool and kind Houren! I missed you!"


	27. Chapter 27

_Thank you all for reading and reviewing Scroll _^ v ^

_LOL! I typed a reply to your review, _**2oatmealcookies** _based on my second interpretation of your review. My bad! _^ v ^_ I did think you were referring to the description of being numb. _* v *_ I thank you for that great suggestion on how to describe it. But as I said on the last chapter, I can't stop talking about it…in that way, LOL. If you look back at the report that Houren read about Sasuke in chapter 17 (spoiler alert..?), Sasuke stopped feeling the "supposed mental and emotional trauma that caused his rage." In the past chapters (if you noticed), Sasuke's chest felt numb when he was on the verge of getting angry, feeling longing, experiencing sadness, feeling guilt – all those negative emotions. And I'm going to stop here _^ v ^_. This explanation is actually on the future chapters. _

_So as much as I would love to describe his emotion as "he felt a heavy weight fall on him on the sudden lose/ Fear was spreading throughtout his being," I can't. Because he's supposed to be stripped of feeling anything negative like fear, sadness, anger, pain etc. I know it's hard and confusing to imagine – being stripped of a particular set of emotion. So I thought the best way to describe it was Sasuke feeling empty and hollow, or numb, in the chest when his logical brain told him he was supposed to be feeling a negative emotion in a particular situation or feeling pain in his chest. _

_It's still confusing, isn't it? _^ v ^ _Feeling upset, as you know, causes the body to feel stress. This stress affects body functions hence, for example, the common sadness-related chest pains. And it makes the experience of feeling the negative emotion more painful because you physically feel something painful. __With Sasuke in this story, instead of feeling those chest pains, he just doesn't feel it. The physical strain is there, but since he's not supposed to feel the strain, he feels numb instead of pained. _

_More confusing, isn't it? _^ v ^_ LOL! I'm so sorry. I guess you'll just have to wait for the next chapters. _

_Um, what do you mean exactly by explaining what you've all read so far, _**Timber Wolf of Purity**_? _* v * _Where should I begin?_

_Thank you, Mathematica-Chan! I've read Hunger Games. It's really good. I just wasn't that satisfied with the ending. _^ v ^ _I've also read Fruits Basket (I'm sadly not a fan of Kyo), and Bleach (awesome!), and Inuyasha. I'll check out the other mangas you suggested. _

_Anyway, here's this week's chapter for Scroll. Please tell me what you think about it _^ v *

* * *

><p>Keiko held the end of Houren's long white braided hair in her plump fingers – her eyes busy examining the braid. "I like your white hair better than that evil Houren's blonde one," she said as shepressed it's soft humps. "And your hair is so smooth."<p>

Houren chuckled and combed Keiko's hair with his fingertips. "Your hair is smooth too," he said. "Just like mine."

Keiko shook her head and looked up at him. "Yours is smoother and softer than mine," she said. "When are you going to tell me how you wash your hair?"

Houren laughed and pulled Keiko to sit on his lap. "Last time I checked, I was born with it," he said giving Keiko a playful squeeze. "And I passed it onto you. How are you doing so far, Keiko-chan?"

Keiko gave Houren a sweet peck on his cheek. "I'm okay," she answered. "We had a visitor. He's here to take Jiro-kun's place."

Houren noticed Keiko's mood grow sullen. "What's wrong, Keiko-chan?"

Keiko shook her head and looked down at her lap. "I'm just worried about Onee-chan," she said.

Houren sighed. "I thought someone's already there to take Jiro-kun's place," he said. "That means there's someone who will take care of her again, right?"

Keiko shrugged her shoulders. "I just feel like he's going to do something bad to her," she said. "Otou-san said it's bad to judge people. But I can't stop myself from thinking that way about him."

Houren smiled. "Why? Is he ugly?"

"No," Keiko answered, shaking her head.

"Ah," Houren said nodding. "He looks handsome, like that blonde Houren."

Keiko rolled her eyes. "He's more handsome than that blonde Houren," she said.

Houren chuckled. "You like this visitor?"

"No," Keiko answered frowning. "I don't like people who hurt Onee-chan."

Houren leaned his head slightly to take a better look at Keiko. "But I thought you just **think** he would hurt her," he said. "That means he **hasn't** hurt her yet, or has he?"

Keiko snorted. "It's the same thing!"

Houren chuckled. "No, it isn't," he said. "Neh, Keiko-chan looks scary when she's frowning."

Keiko stuck out her tongue. "Where have you been anyway?" she asked. "It's been so long since I last saw you."

Houren laughed. "I was busy," he said. "I went on a trip. Speaking of trips, I heard this story while on my way here. Have you heard about the Anrui flower?"

Keiko looked away and thought for a moment. "I think I've heard about it somewhere," she said. "I just don't remember where." She then looked up at Houren. "What kind of flower is it? Does it grow in the snow like Okaa-san's flowers?"

Houren smiled. "Yes," he answered. "But it doesn't look like any flower growing in the snow that you've seen. And I don't think there's any flower like it in the world."

"What do you mean?" Keiko asked looking confused at Houren.

"The Anrui flower," Houren began as he tucked a stray lock of hair behind Keiko's ear. "…Is the flower whose tears can heal any wound and illness."

"Tears..?"

* * *

><p>Sakura bit her lips from gasping as she stared at the massive moist red and white patches on Kei's arm. It had blisters, and thick swelling patches of skin that looked like they were continents printed on a map.<p>

It was eleven in the evening. Sakura was cheacking her notes about the new strain of the epidemic that seemed to have infected some of the villagers who survived the plague. She was busy thinking of a way to cure the new patients when Keiko's mother knocked on her bedroom door.

"Since when have you been…having this?" Sakura asked as she sat across Kei on the floor of her bedroom.

They had stayed in Kaitaro and his wife's house since the hospital was burned down to the ground.

"It started around two weeks ago," Kei answered trying hard not to wince at the painful burning sensation in her limbs. "They were just small red dots on my skin – like insect bites," she said. "They didn't look like the ones the victims of the epidemic had so I figured they were just plain insect bites. But I also took some of the medicine you made for the epidemic."

Sakura stiffened.

The other doctors were suffering a similar fate. Sakura was just about to ask them to take some of the medicine she made for the epidemic.

"It didn't seem to do anything," Kei continued. "The red spots started to sting after a week. I tried a higher dosage just in case it would help…"

Sakura bit her lip.

She was back to zero.

"I also just started to vomit blood," Kei said.

Sakura stared shocked at Kei. The new strain seemed to develop faster than the earlier strain.

"Let me check your internal organs," she said placing her hand on the Kei's chakra center, planning to subtly give Kei some of her chakra – the only way she knew how to suppress the energy that, she was sure, was causing the illness.

Kei quickly held Sakura's hand and kept it away from her. "I know what you're planning to do," she said smiling at her. "And I'm grateful for it. But that's not the reason why I'm here."

Sakura stared confused at Kei.

"I know I don't have much time anymore," Kei said.

"Don't say that," Sakura interrupted. "We'll find the cure. I have everything noted. I'll find the cure! I found the cure for the earlier strain. I'm sure I'll find the cure for this one too. Just trust me."

"I trust you," Kei said chuckling at Sakura. "That's why I'm here." She gave Sakura's hand a slight squeeze. "I want you to take good care of Keiko-chan and my husband."

Sakura shook her head. "You're not dying," she insisted. "Let me help you," she said attempting to place her palm over Kei's abdomen.

Kei shook her head and held Sakura's hand away from her. "Don't kill yourself just because you're a doctor and I'm sick."

"What are you-"

"I know you don't have enough chakra for yourself," Kei said.

Sakura froze.

Kei smiled. "You can help me more by making sure he doesn't hurt Keiko-chan and Kaitaro," she said. "…If you save our village from him."

Sakura tried her best to stop her tears from falling.

Kei was the one who thought of seeking help from Konoha. She was the one who was brave enough to sneak out of the village to give Sakura and her team updates on what was going on, while Sakura and the Anbu ninjas were staying in the village at the foot of the mountain.

Kei was one of the village's heroes. And suffering such a fate was not something she deserved.

Sakura gasped. "Did you speak to anyone about the cause of the illness?" she anxiously asked.

Kei smirked. "I spoke to Akio," she answered. "He wanted to know how we were doing. I told him we were alright and that we were still healthy. I asked him why he wanted to know, and spurt out a joke in the process."

"What joke..?" Sakura asked.

Kei shrugged her shoulders. "I told him I still haven't been experiencing the symptoms of the illness they thought they already gave us," she said. "I chuckled and told him I was kidding. I also said there was no way they would be able to control who the illness kills and who it doesn't."

Sakura cursed.

Akio may be the kindest one in Houren's group, but he was also the most dumb. He must have felt paranoid. After all, the remaining villagers were making rumours that Houren and his group were one of the people who caused the disease.

Many of the remaining villagers were blaming their co-villagers who didn't get infected with the disease. They even made rumours that the doctors were behind the epidemic. They said the doctors made an experiment and something went terribly wrong.

But no one took the theories seriously. There were enough emotionally stable and intellectually rational villagers to debunk the ideas.

…Though Sakura and her team knew what theory was worth believing. Kei and Kaitaro thought about it too as they made further investigations on how the epidemic spread.

But they didn't have enough evidence to support it. So they agreed not to tell anyone else about it.

"It was my fault," Kei said. "I was just so sick of acting like nothing was wrong when Akio and his friends killed my sister. I slipped and I tried to save myself by making it a joke."

"Does Kaitaro-san know?" Sakura asked.

"I told him about my encounter with Akio," Kei said. "But I didn't tell him that I'm sick. I think he has noticed it though. I just want to make sure that someone will help my family when I'm gone. I'm sorry I'm asking so much from you."

Sakura shook her head. "I have nowhere else to go anyway," she said. "I will do everything I can to stop this."

Kei smiled. "Thank you," she said. "You're a great medic. I hope Keiko-chan grows up to become as brave and as kind as you."

Sakura bowed her head as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Kei gently wiped her tears away with her thumb. "Don't be sad, Sakura-san," she said. "I'm happy that I met you and your team."

* * *

><p>Sasuke stared frozen at the page of the journal in his hand.<p>

He was sorting the pages of the pile of papers on Sakura's desk when he noticed a page of the journal that didn't look like medical notes. He noticed that the name of Kaitaro's wife was there. Curious about how Keiko-chan's mother was like when she was alive, he read the entry.

And in the process learned that the medical notes he read before he noticed the journal entry with the name of Keiko-chan's mother, were notes about the new strain of the epidemic.

Just as what the journal entry said, the new strain developed faster than the older strain. And it deformed the skin and the internal organs of its victim in a more gruesome way. The patients infected with the disease developed skin burns that instead of healing after a couple of weeks grew worse with every week.

The red spots on the skin, though fewer compared to the ones from the earlier strain, stung more painfully as attested by the patients that Sakura examined – a couple of villagers that included the Kaitaro's collegues.

The red spots turned into red patches that gradually resembled first degree burns in the span of seven days. They resembled second degree burns on the second week - what Kei's skin had based on the journal entry he read.

On the third day of the second week, the patient's inflamed skin burst like the boils that formed in the earlier strain of the epidemic. If Sasuke's interpretation of the illustration and descriptions were correct, the symptom on the second week caused the patient's skin to resemble the ravaged skin on Sakura's legs.

The second degree burns developed into third degree burns on the third patients also began vomiting blood on or a few days before the third week.

They died on the fourth week due to multiple organ failure and hemorrhage.

Sasuke took several deep breaths to calm himself.

The red spots that turned into skin burns were supposed to be found all over the patient's body, not just on the legs.

But what if Sakura's thick kimono and arm warmers hid her severed flesh from him?

But if her arms suffered the same fate as her legs did, wouldn't she lose the ability to use a writing tool and…

…The quil.

Sasuke noticed the quil on the desk. It was a feather taken from a raven, if his memory served him right.

He gently took it in his hand and noticed how much lighter it was than a typical brush.

Why would Sakura use a light-weight quill instead of a heavy brush?

Sasuke shook his head - his heart pounding loudly. Every beat should've pained him. But he only felt like a hole was boring through his chest, sucking something that was supposed to be there.

The only severed parts of Sakura's body were her legs. She couldn't be infected with the new strain of the illness. If she was, he should have noticed the red spots. He should have noticed the change on her skin!

And if she got the disease before he arrived in the village, Sakura would be dying at that very moment – vomiting blood for at least one hour, three to four times a day as decribed in the journal. She wouldn't be able to eat anything because of the state of her internal organs.

Sasuke cursed.

Why was he even feeling anxious about it? He had thought about the possibility of Sakura getting the new strain of the disease. He had seen that possibility coming.

But why was he suddenly so defensive at facing the facts that could possibly prove that she was dy-

Sasuke rubbed moisture in his eyes to stop his vision from blurring.

He didn't even want to think about the word anymore…or the phrase where the word was put next to Sakura's name.

Sasuke suddenly felt a slight squeeze in his chest before he felt a numbing sensation growing from the area of his breast bone.

Sasuke stared confused at nowhere.

For a moment there, he actually felt…he **felt**...he felt like his heart was breaking. Then it stopped and he felt more like his chest was being sucked inside a void.

A void that made him know he was feeling bad about things, but not making him know just **how** bad he was feeling.

Sasuke looked up to the room where Sakura lay sleeping.

Kei said Sakura didn't have enough chakra to sustain herself…that healing Kei would kill Sakura…

Why would she say that? Sakura didn't give her chakra to everyone in the village - just to that infant, Haru. Why would she not have enough chakra to sustain herself?

Did something happen to her before she came to the village?

...And Sakura said she had nowhere else to go.

What did she mean by that?


	28. Chapter 28

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll' ^ _v ^

_It's not that Sasuke can't feel emotions much, _**angrypixels,** _he just can't feel the negative ones that much. * _v_ *_

_As for who the good Houren is, **Timber Wolf of Purity**, it's going to be on the future chapters. ^ _v_ ^ But I'll try to help you out on those questions you have. "Good Houren" is the man Sakura was speaking to in Chapter 11. The blonde Houren spoke to him in the beginning of Chapter 13. Kaitaro talked about "Good Houren" with Sakura in Chapter 16. He's been in many of the past chapters, and was basically addressed as "the man" in a fur coat. I just revealed his identity on Chapter 27. He'll introduce himself further in the next chapters. * _v_ *_

_Anyway, here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you think about it. ^ _v

* * *

><p>"We've noticed some trees in the forest that haven't been marked yet, my lord," a kneeling guard said, bowing lowly in front of Houren.<p>

Houren twirled a lock of his blonde hair around his index finger. "In what part of the forest..?" he asked – a bored expression on his face as he sat on his throne.

Akio stood beside him, watching the head of Houren's special troop of guards as he gave his report on their task that day – survey the woods for intruders.

It was the first time in eight months that they received information about the guards seeing trees that weren't marked.

After Jirotaiku's escape, Houren ordered the guards to mark every tree in the woods with his seal – a small eight-petaled lotus flower pointing upwards. At first, they thought it was ridiculous, since no one else claimed the trees in the woods other than their village. And Houren, as the village's leader, had claim over all of them.

It didn't make much sense to Akio until the head guard gave his report that night.

"It's up north, my lord," the guard answered.

"How many are they?" Houren asked.

"We counted twelve, my lord."

Houren nodded. "Leave."

The guard bowed deeped one last time before he stood up – head still down – and walked backwards to the door. It was only after reaching a few steps away from the door that he turned away from Houren and walked out of the hall.

Akio anxiously looked up at Houren.

Houren smirked.

"I don't understand," Akio said. "We've marked each tree."

"You mean each tree you could **see**," Houren said smiling at Akio.

Akio stiffened.

"Cheer up, Akio," Houren said as he stood up from his throne. "This is good news! We are winning this game!"

Akio looked away and thought about what was happening. "If our guards can see it," he said. "Those Oto ninjas might see them too."

Houren burst into laughter. "Seriously, Akio," he said. "Where **is** your brain? They're in **my** land. **No one** does something against my will and **lives**. Haruno Sakura will be the **best **example. Just wait for a few more weeks, Akio. She'll be nothing but ashes soon."

He then walked to the door behind his throne – excitement all over his face.

* * *

><p>Sasuke anxiously watched Sakura slowly sit down on the floor, without so much as a mat as a cushion. She faced the small table she used as an office desk.<p>

It was early morning and Sasuke was about to serve the steamy bowl of miso soup Sakura requested to eat for breakfast.

He stiffly watched her slowly rearrange the papers on her table so the two of them could eat.

Sasuke gripped the bowls of miso soup tightly. He wanted to pick Sakura up from the floor and keep her legs as far away from any hard surface as possible.

Though he doubt putting her on the futon would keep her away from the pain. Perhaps it would lessen it, but it won't keep her away from the pain entirely.

The image of her severely wounded legs still haunted him. And as Sakura sat on the floor – her legs folded beneath her – he couldn't help but see the image of her wounds bleeding with the pressure…Sakura biting her lips 'til it bled, to stop herself from wincing.

He wanted to keep her away from the pain, and make sure her legs healed. But he knew there was no way he could do it.

Sakura looked up at Sasuke and noticed his grim expression. She raised a brow at him. "Aren't those bowls hot?" she asked. "You can place them here on the table, you know."

Sasuke sat down in front of Sakura and placed the steamy bowls of miso on the table – his eyes glaring at the table.

Sakura sighed.

He was disgusted. She shouldn't have let him change her bandages that night.

Sakura then heard him grunt. She looked up at him and watched him as he quickly stood up from his seat.

Sakura couldn't help but look down at the table. She swallowed the hard lump forming in her throat.

What was she expecting exactly? This was Uchiha Sasuke!

He was the monster who tried to kill her several times, who wanted to kill everyone in the village, who cared nothing about others…who cared only about himself and his precious Uchiha name!

"…Sakura," Sakura suddenly heard Sasuke's voice close to her ear.

She stiffly looked up at him – eyes wide in surprise.

Sasuke stared at her as if she just grew a second head.

Sakura blinked, trying to regain her composure.

"I said move," Sasuke said.

"W-what?"

"I told you to move," Sasuke said.

But Sakura only stared at him.

Sasuke sighed and put the pillow he was carrying, down on the floor.

It was then that Sakura noticed that he had something in his hand. She stared at the pillow for a moment – puzzled as to why Sasuke took it from the bedroom.

…Until she felt his strong arms lifting her slightly from the ground.

She gasped as her face nearly touched his cheek.

Sasuke gently kicked the pillow to Sakura's seat on the floor.

Sakura stared shocked at Sasuke as he gently lowered her down on the pillow.

He slowly pulled his arms away from her and noticed how her eyes still stared at him as if he just made a fool of himself…which he didn't do…r-right..?

He just figured that lessening the pain was far better than keeping the same intensity of the pain. Was it…wrong?

Sakura just kept her pale green eyes on Sasuke's dark ones, as Sasuke slowly took in the minute details of her pale green iris.

He didn't know why she was staring at him that way, and he didn't like it. At that moment, his brain could only make out one reason for her action.

Sakura watched Sasuke's expression change into an anxious one.

"You're in pain," he breathed, panic lacing his low voice.

Sakura suddenly wondered why he said it, and raised a brow at him. "I'm in what..?"

"Your legs hurt," he said, ready to jump up from the floor and leap to the bedroom where he stored his first aid kit.

Sakura stared at him for a moment before she burst into laughter.

Sasuke stared confused at her.

Was she going insane too? Did the extreme pain her legs affect her mental state..? Like…it gave her a terrible mental trauma that was causing her to lose her sanity?

Sakura stopped laughing and gave Sasuke the smile he didn't think he would receive again – that smile that always greeted him when he met her on the bridge back in Konoha.

"Thank you," she said.

Sasuke stiffened. He felt his heart suddenly skip a beat.

Sakura chuckled. "I'm alright," she said. Her legs still stung but not as much as it did before, probably because of the ointment that Sasuke used on her bandage.

She knew that ointment well. It was a special ointment she made for ninjas who were sent out to extremely dangerous missions. It aided in drying up wounds, or temporarily stopping external hemorrhage.

The ointment acted like platelets in the blood. It melted in the moist area of a wound and created a layer similar to dried blood. It also released a mild anaesthetic that allowed severely wounded ninjas to move without feeling the intense pain that supposedly was caused by their wounds.

She didn't think Sasuke would have one though. She didn't recommend the ointment for general use because its effects were temporary, and not feeling pain when severely wounded was fatal. A ninja might forget how wounded he is, continue fighting in battle, and in the process forget his need for medical attention, which would fatally aggravate his health.

So the only ones she gave the ointment to, other than Tsunade who kept some for hospital use, were Kakashi and Naruto.

It didn't make much sense to carry such an ointment in a retrieval mission, so the one who most probably gave Sasuke the ointment was…Naruto.

Sakura smirked.

That meant Sasuke and Naruto were in better terms.

"You're a great doctor," she said. "You should try becoming a medic nin some time…when you're not too busy being the all powerful Uchiha."

"Hn," Sasuke said as he stood up and looked away.

He felt…odd…happy? No. It was something…more…

"I'm hungry," Sakura said. "Can we start eating breakfast now?"

* * *

><p>"Is this really a good idea?" Ijira asked, looking sharply at their leader, Kasaru, as the three of them sat on a tree observing the forest ground – their white cape hoods keeping their faces hidden.<p>

They had been in the village for more than a month – surveying the area, searching the forest for clues, and observing what was happening in the village.

It was after seeing the notorious Uchiha Sasuke in the area that Ijira suddenly realized what they were doing was dangerous.

Then Kasaru decided to coordinate with the village's chief, Houren, who didn't seem to realize how Ijira and his team could wipe out his villagers once their team got what they came for.

Then they saw Houren's men, a group of soldiers clothed like ninjas, surveying the area and checking trees. At first it looked silly. But when they took a closer look at the trees they surveyed, they felt something that shouldn't be there.

A chakra signature that was faint but there – Houren's chakra signature.

They didn't think the village knew anything about the skills and techniques of ninjas. The intelligence reported that they weren't even aware of ninjas until Konoha sent some at the villages' request, and when the Konoha ninjas battled a number of ninjas from various villages in an attempt to stop them from getting information about the rumoured plague.

But Houren placed some of his chakra on the trees…on a number of trees in the woods.

They did further investigation on what was going on, and noticed that some of the trees in the woods didn't have Houren's signature. But after a couple of hours, those particular trees seemed to disappear…or the trees suddenly bore Houren's chakra signature, just like the other trees.

The unmarked trees appeared and disappeared three times in one day. And upon closer inspection, their numbers grew as the day passed. There were five unmarked trees when they first surveyed the woods. They saw three more after two days. Two more trees appeared after three days.

At that moment, they spotted twelve unmarked trees – four days later. Whatever made the trees appear was being slowed down. But it didn't seem good enough to keep the trees hidden.

"What are you saying exactly?" Kasaru asked glowering at Ijira.

Ijira winced. "I just thought that this thing that's happening in the trees is…too odd," he said. "If this was some kind of ninjutsu or genjutsu, we should have noticed it by now. But we didn't."

"Your point is?" Zumi asked.

Ijira looked at Zumi. "They're using some technique we don't know about," he said. "How sure are we that we still have advantage over them? Think about it! Houren wasn't in the least bit troubled when we met him."

"But they're not aware of how strong we are," Zumi said proudly.

Ijira shook his head. "I don't feel good about this," he said.

"Don't worry too much, Ijira," Kasaru said. "If they really are as strong as you think they are, they'll have the ability to kill the Uchiha and that medic nin. Once those two are dead, we'll take the scroll from Houren."

"And if they fail in killing Uchiha?" Ijira asked.

Kasaru smirked. "Even better," he said. "He'll be too weak to fight us if he survived fighting Houren, assuming he's really as strong as you think he is. We'll get the scroll to Oto, and be honored as heroes – ninjas who killed the only living Uchiha."

"I like that," Zumi said smirking.

Ijira looked away, still bothered about their mission.

* * *

><p>"There's this flower somewhere here in the mountain," Sasuke heard Keiko say as he walked into the back door of Kaitaro's house.<p>

He wanted to skip clinic work that day but Sakura insisted that he should go to keep Houren's spies from noticing that he didn't live in the doctor's place like everyone in the village knew.

"It has petals that look like soft thin sheets of sparkling crystal," Keiko's voice echoed in the kitchen.

Sasuke found the doctor and his daughter in the dining room, having breakfast.

"Sasuke-san," Kaitaro greeted.

"Hn," Sasuke replied.

"GOOD MORNING, SASUKE-SAN!"

Sasuke stared incredulously at Keiko as she smiled cheerfully up at him.

Keiko was the least person in Kaitaro's house who would greet him warmly. So why the sudden change?

Sasuke stared at her for a moment before he looked up to Kaitaro, who was at that moment fixing tea for him.

"Is she ill?" Sasuke asked.


	29. Chapter 29

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll.' ^ _v_ ^ I'm really glad a lot of you are enjoying the twists and turns so far._

_Yes, **XxSwingLifeAwayxX**, your review absolutely motivated me * _v_ * Thank you so much! _

_Glad you found it funny, **Reignashii **_^ v ^ _I was imagining how Sasuke was saying that line when I wrote it._

_I know you all have a lot of questions and theories on what's going on right now in the story. Sadly, a lot of them can only be answered in the next chapters. _

_So here goes this week's chapter. Hope you like it. There's another part here that I'm not entirely sure of if it's accurate enough. Do point it out for clarification if it confuses you in anyway. Oh and tell me what you think about it too! _^ v ^

* * *

><p>Kaitaro turned to look at Sasuke. "Ill?"<p>

Keiko's cheerful face turned into a nasty frown. "I was being friendly!"

Sasuke looked down at the child - his eyes just blinking twice.

Keiko folded her arms over her chest and glared coldly at Sasuke. "I'm a warm and friendly person! That's why I was being friendly!"

Sasuke just stared at her as if she suddenly grew snakes on her head.

Kaitaro burst into laughter.

Keiko woke up that morning in such high spirits. To Kaitaro's surprise, the first thing she did when she woke up was greet the sun. He suddenly wondered if he looked that odd to his own parents when he was in Keiko's age.

"I've checked her temperature," he told Sasuke. "She seems normal."

"I **am** normal!" Keiko defended.

Again, Sasuke just stared at her.

Keiko rolled her eyes. "Nothing is going to ruin my day today," she said. "Not even this 'Hn.'"

"What..?" Kaitaro asked confused at what she said.

Sasuke frowned and glared at her.

The kid had that incredible talent of annoying him…just like Naruto did.

Kaitaro smirked at how Sasuke and Keiko seemed to get along.

"Anyway," Keiko said. "Where was I, Otou-san?"

"Petals that look like sheets of crystal," Kaitaro said as he placed Sasuke's cup of tea on the table and motioned Sasuke to take a seat.

Sasuke obliged and sipped his tea.

"Oh right!" Keiko said. "So it has these petals that look like really thin sheets of crystal, and when the light touches it, the whole flower looks like a sparkling giant diamond brooch!"

Sasuke kept his eyes on his tea, still thinking about how Sakura was doing alone in the house with her severely wounded legs.

Should he ask the doctor for pain killers?

"SASUKE-SAN!" Sasuke suddenly heard Keiko say. He looked up at her – an eye brow raised in query.

"I said I'm talking about the Anrui flower," she said. "Do you have one like it in Konoha?"

"Silent tears..?" he muttered, thinking about Keiko's question. Well he wasn't Ino, so why should he know? "I'm a doctor's assistant."

Keiko glared at Sasuke. Kaitaro tried hard not to laugh.

"The least you could have said was 'I don't know,'" Keiko said.

"Hn," Sasuke said looking back down at his tea.

"Or 'hn,'" Keiko muttered as she rolled her eyes.

Sasuke glared at her.

Kaitaro chuckled.

"Just so you know what I'm telling Otou-san," Keiko said. "An Anrui flower is a flower here in the mountain that cries."

Sasuke stared at Keiko, waiting for the punchline.

Keiko looked proudly back at him.

No punchline came.

"A crying flower," Sasuke said.

"Are you stupid?" Keiko asked. "Its name means 'Silent Tears.' Of course it's a crying flower."

Sasuke stared at her for a moment before he sipped his tea. "And I can fly," he said.

Keiko sent him another glare. Kaitaro just chuckled.

"I'm serious!" Keiko said. "It cries! Tears slide down its crystal sheet petals!"

Sasuke stared at Keiko again…then turned to the doctor. "Are you expecting a lot of patients today?"

"No," Kaitaro said. "In fact, I think this day will be the most boring day we'll have this week." he asked, deciding to ignore whatever story Keiko was enthralled in at that moment.

Keiko scowled – her cheeks puffing and her lips pouting.

"Can I leave early today?" Sasuke asked.

Kaitaro watched Sasuke carefully and understood what he meant.

If the seal Sakura had on herself was broken, it meant only one thing.

And she would need all the help she could get.

"Of course," Kaitaro answered. "You can take the afternoon off."

Sasuke nodded.

"Otou-san," Keiko called.

Kaitaro smiled at her. "Yes, dear?"

"Can I visit Onee-chan later?" Keiko asked. "I want to tell her about the Anrui flower too." She then sent a glare at Sasuke. "I bet she'll take me seriously. She knows something about the Anrui flower too. I know she drew a picture of it once."

Sasuke kept an apathetic stare at Keiko. But the gears in his mind were turning.

Sakura drew a picture of the Anrui flower? She knew about it? …A flower that had crystal petals and shed tears?

"Its tears are said to heal any wound and illness after all," Keiko said looking up at Kaitaro. "Onee-chan looked for it before, right?"

Sasuke stiffened.

It healed any wound and illness…Would it heal Sakura's wounds? Would it save Sakura from…

NO. Sakura was **not** sick. She was just wounded!

Her wounds just needed to heal...right..?

Kaitaro noticed Sasuke's reaction and knew that Houren's plan had worked.

"I'm sorry, dear," Kaitaro told Keiko. "I've been hearing about intruders surveying the woods."

Sasuke glanced at the doctor.

He didn't feel any other presence in the woods. It was as secure as it had been when he first went there. And it seemed to be enclosed in a barrier, based on what Daiki had told him with the snow storms and...

Snow storms. The evening weather seemed calmer these past few days.

Did that mean..?

"I'll let you visit Sakura-san when Daiki and the other guards say it's safe to go to the woods," Kaitaro said. "Even the woodcutters are not allowed to go to the forest now."

Sasuke looked down at his tea.

The intruders could be ninjas from other nations who, Tsunade said, were interested in getting the scroll that Sakura was writing.

He had to get home and make sure Sakura was safe.

Keiko sighed sadly. "Okay," she said.

Kaitaro patted her head. "But you can write her a letter," he said.

Keiko gasped excitedly. "I'll write her a letter!" she happily exclaimed. "I'll write her a letter!" She then narrowed her eyes at Sasuke. "Don't go home without my letter," she said.

Sasuke looked up at her for a moment before he looked back down and sipped his tea.

Kaitaro chuckled.

* * *

><p>"You still stink," Sakura heard someone on the door say as she sat on her desk writing notes on several papers.<p>

"Good morning to you too," she greeted the visitor. She raised a brow at how his usually long white braided hair, at that moment draped loose on his shoulder. "For a moment there I thought you were Houren."

"I **am** Houren," he said walking closer to Sakura. "Or have you forgotten that?"

Sakura chuckled. "Of course, I haven't," she said. "I was merely admiring your new look. No more braids?"

"I'm too stressed to braid anything," he said sitting in front of Sakura. "I thought you changed your bandages. Apparently you didn't change all of them."

"You know I can't change them on my own," Sakura said. "Tea..?"

"No thank you," Houren said. "I'm assuming Uchiha changed some of your bandages."

"You never assume," Sakura said. "You **know**. I bet you were even spying on him while he was doing it."

Houren smirked. "Of course," he said. "And might I say he's quite attractive when he's in tears. I might actually enjoy your death."

Sakura chuckled, shaking her head. "That's the best joke you can give? We're talking about Uchiha Sasuke here," she said. "Not Jirotaiku."

Houren sighed. "I'm telling you," he said. "The boy can cry."

"As a human, yes," she said.

Houren rolled his eyes. "Did you ever…think…or wonder…or notice…that he's…in love with you?"

"In my dreams, yes," she said, looking away. "Those were…horrible dreams."

Houren watched her carefully. "Because they ended..?"

Sakura smirked. "Because they're not real," she said before she looked up at him. "You know our situation."

"You only took away something that he could live without," Houren said. "It's as good as giving a severely depressed person an anti-depressant."

Sakura shook her head and looked down at her hands. "No," she said. "It's not him. This isn't him."

Houren sighed. "You didn't know him before he lost his family," he said. "How would you know this isn't him?"

"Because I made him this way," she bitterly answered.

Houren shook his head. "He just sucks the life out of you," he said. "He doesn't absorb your personality. That's not how it works!"

Sakura looked up at him. "You don't understand."

"I **do** understand," he said. "I wouldn't teach you how to do it if I haven't done it! How did you think my great grandchildren existed?"

Sakura sighed and looked away. "Is that why you're here?" she asked. "…To persuade me to think otherwise?"

"Yes," Houren answered. "And to tell you, that you have to refrain from going out of the house."

Sakura looked confused at Houren. "Why? What's going on?"

"His almighty's men have spotted some of the trees," Houren said. "I tried to slow down the flower's wilting process, but it's not doing much. I'll be telling Kaitaro to keep Uchiha here with you too. There's no telling when the cloak will vanish entirely."

Sakura's face turned grim. "No," she said. "You have to get him away from me."

"And I will," Houren said. "…Just not now. Houren is still keeping tabs on me. He'll only let me loose when he has enough information about where you are. If I get Uchiha away from you now, Uchiha will be in heaps of trouble."

Sakura sighed and suddenly felt the need to cough. She quickly covered her mouth and started coughing…coughing like a person with dry cough…loud and painful…

Houren's face turned grim.

"Excuse me," Sakura whispered after taking several deep breaths. Breathing seemed somewhat difficult for her to do after coughing.

"Your clock is ticking," Houren said.

Sakura looked up at him.

"You can't keep the next stages of your illness from him," he said. "…Especially now..."

Sakura sighed and looked away. "I was afraid you'd say that," she said. "I know it's bound to happen. It's just hard…to accept it. He shouldn't take care of me."

Houren looked down at the papers on Sakura's table. "I won't tell him about what happened four years ago," he said.

Sakura looked up at Houren.

"I respect you," he said. "And though I think it's irrational of you to not tell him, I understand your reason. But I have to give him a hint on it." He then took her quil and examined it. "I'm sure Houren will make up a story to persuade him. How grave and believable that story is, I don't know."

Houren looked at Sakura. "But I'm betting that by the time Houren's finished with his tale, Uchiha will give you up," he said.

Sakura nodded. "Konoha has recovered anyway," she said. "I'm sure he won't get anywhere far with the scroll in his hand."

Houren sighed. "Lovers," he muttered bitterly. "You sacrifice yourself to save the one you love, when you know his salvation calls for more than your death."

Sakura smirked. "I just hope he wouldn't know," she said. "I'm afraid it would wound his ego."

Houren looked down at the quill.

It wouldn't just wound Uchiha's ego. Houren was sure, based on how Uchiha had been acting around Sakura, that it would break the Uchiha's heart.

* * *

><p>Sasuke walked down the snowy path of the woods with a box of medicines from the doctor, secured in a messenger bag.<p>

He remembered how Kaitaro gave him the medicines before he left. They were in the clinic at that time. He had just finished checking the medical supplies in the storage cabinet when he thought of asking for pain killers for Sakura.

"How much are you selling the pain killers?" Sasuke asked the doctor as he stared at his clip board.

Sasuke made sure he still had money in his pouch before he left the house that morning. The village didn't seem to have a drug store - just the doctor's clinic.

Kaitaro stared at him for a moment, wondering why he asked such a question, when it hit him. "I don't sell them," he said. "Villagers here don't have much money either, you see. But I need to know what kind of patient will use them."

Sasuke thought for a moment.

Should he say Sakura needed it? It was only logical anyway. The doctor already knew her condition.

But it somewhat felt too odd to do – ask for something that he just figured Sakura needed. When did he start thinking about Sakura's needs anyway?

"I changed her bandages," he said.

Kaitaro nodded in understanding.

Sasuke watched the doctor carefully. Kaitaro walked to one of the medicine cabinets.

"They don't seem like…just burns," Sasuke said.

Kaitaro nodded.

Sasuke opened his mouth to ask if Sakura was ill, but he somehow couldn't find the words to say it.

His chest was grew numb the more he thought of the answer to that particular question.

Kaitaro pulled out a box of medicines and watched Sasuke look away.

He knew Sasuke wanted to ask him about Sakura's health. He also knew how Sasuke feared to here the word 'yes,' from him.

"Here," Kaitaro said instead, handing Sasuke the box of medicines. "These are some of the medicines for Sakura's condition."

Sasuke stared surprised at the doctor for a moment before he took the box and checked its content.

Pain killers…antibiotics…inhalation anaesthesia…

Inhalation anaesthesia..?

Sasuke was about to ask the doctor about the medicine when Kaitaro spoke.

"Just take it," he said.

Sasuke trudged the snow, thinking about why he would need an inhalation anaesthesia that put patients to sleep in surgeries.

Would Sakura have difficulty sleeping with her wounds?

He was about to step his left foot forward when he felt something strange in the air.

Sasuke vanished from his spot on the snowy forest.

He observed the woods from a tree branch almost eight feet from the ground.

His eyes wondered stealthily on the black and white scenery…looking for something that his guts told him should be there.

"_I'm sorry, dear," Kaitaro told Keiko. "I've been hearing about intruders surveying the woods."_

Sasuke's face grew grim. That meant that it was in deed no longer safe to walk casually in the woods.

His dark eyes quickly turned into a shade of blood – a black three-bladed, jagged edged shuriken silhouette inside a black outline of a six-pointed star, breaking their bloody hue.

* * *

><p>Sakura gasped as pain surged into her chest. She coughed out loudly, feeling an itchy lump inside her throat that needed to be coughed out.<p>

She suddenly realized how tight her chest was constricting. She could barely fill her lungs with air.

Sakura slumped on the table, coughing out as the pain surged into her body.

Houren had already left. Sasuke was still in the clinic.

She was alone in the house.

Sakura tried to look up…the door was still open.

If an intruder barged into the house, she wouldn't be able to defend herself…not in that state.

Sakura coughed more, her throat stinging.

* * *

><p>Sasuke observed everything around him.<p>

There were people several feet away from him…he could see their chakra…ninjas.

Oto ninjas..?

Sasuke glared at the direction of the intruders. They were perched on a tree, most likely not yet aware of Sasuke's presence.

Should he kill them at that very moment? It would be boring to take their lives in a flash but Sakura's life was in danger.

SAKURA!

What if she was already in danger? What if the ninjas he was seeing were merely there as lookouts - guards that made sure no one interfered with what their colleagues were already doing to Sakura?

Sasuke cursed.

WHAT WAS HE GOING TO DO FIRST?

* * *

><p>Tears slid down Sakura's eyes. She didn't care if she was crying like a baby on the table.<p>

She was in more pain than she was the other day.

Sasuke using his mangekyou sharingan, and her body having an internal hemorrhage attack was a **bad** combination...

...A very **fatal** one.


	30. Chapter 30

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing Scroll ^ _v

_I'm sorry if I haven't answered your questions Mathamatica-chan. It just means that the answers will be found on the next chapters. If I answer them through A/N's, I'll just end up giving unnecessary spoilers. * _v_ * _

_Also, I'm terribly sorry for the late update. I was very busy last week. I also forgot to inform all of you of my plan in case I end up too busy to upload a chapter every week, which is simply just to upload one every two weeks. * _v_ * It's just a plan B. I just want to assure you that Scroll will not be on hiatus anytime soon. I don't really like leaving stories hanging. But I do love leaving open endings. ^ _v_ ^ But right now, Scroll is on going. Sorry it seems really long now. My Ghost Hunt fanfics were worse. _

_Anyway, here's another chapter for Scroll. I was aiming for a long one to compensate for my tardiness, ^ _v_ ^ Do tell me what you think about it. _

* * *

><p>Sasuke slipped his hand into his hidden weapon holster, tightly gripping a kunai.<p>

Using lightning would cause too much commotion in the woods. If there really were guards roaming in the forest, his attack would be known to everyone. It would give Houren proof that a ninja aside from Sakura was in the vicinity and that it was most likely keeping her somewhere in that direction.

Sasuke cursed.

He shouldn't have used the eternal mangekyou. There he was again with his chakra control issues. Luckily, he didn't accidentally use ameterasu.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the ninjas.

…Or he could allow himself to make a flame-related accident at that very moment. He just needed to be…upset.

The image of a man with scarlet and amber hair surfaced in his thoughts.

He smirked.

Just as his left eye focused on the three Oto ninjas, Sasuke felt another presence in the woods. It seemed to be quickly flying toward him.

He swiftly leaped away from his position, his feet fixing themselves on the trunk of a tree seven feet from his previous location – his eyes looking sharply at the branch he leaped from.

Sasuke noticed a light glint on the branch – three icicles the size of kitchen knives had swiftly lodged itself deep into the thick limb of the tree.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the icicles as he sat on the side of the tree. He looked at the direction where it came from and saw no trace of anyone.

He checked the enemies at a distance and saw no sign of them being alerted by anything or anyone. The Oto ninjas didn't move. They didn't seem to notice the icicles that just flew toward him, nor did they notice someone in their direction who could have released the icicles. They didn't even seem to notice Sasuke's movements.

Sasuke glanced at the gloomy woods.

There was someone else there with him– someone other than the Oto ninjas who noticed his presence and most probably knew where he was at that very moment.

But why couldn't Sasuke sense him? And why hasn't the enemy attacked him again? For some reason, the unseen enemy didn't seem to care about the advantage he had over Sasuke at that moment.

Sasuke glared at the snow-covered trees.

He was being undermined and he didn't like it.

Then he sensed another presence – somewhere near the Oto ninjas.

He swiftly leaped away from the tree, thinking it could be the enemy trying to inform the Oto ninjas about how he was spying on them. He landed on the side of another tree that gave him an eagle's eye view of his targets.

The presence – a man in white cloak, a guard from the village – appeared kneeling in front of the Oto ninjas.

Sasuke's eyes went wide.

The Oto ninjas eyed the guard carefully with superiority. The guard seemed to be talking to them…reporting to them..?

So the ninjas had a spy inside the village.

The branches of the trees began to sway as the cold breeze touched his face. And in the chilly air Sasuke heard a hushed voice echo in his ear.

"…My lord wants to see you," the voice said.

"Does he now?" another voice said.

Sasuke stiffened.

They seemed to be coming from one of the Oto ninjas and the guard of the village. But how could he hear their conversation clearly when they were almost dots in his view of the woods?

The breeze calmed down and the voices slowly vanished.

He watched the ninjas disappear from the tree and the guard run away toward the village.

It was clear then that Houren had made a deal with the Oto ninjas, hence gaining Sasuke and Sakura more enemies to face. But Sasuke was sure the Oto ninjas were also planning on destroying the village once they got what they wanted.

Had Houren thought of that possibility?

He remembered how confident Houren stood in front of him when he saw him in the market.

Of course Houren had thought of that. But he still made a deal with the ninjas..?

That meant only one thing – Houren thought he was capable of killing the Oto ninjas before they dared to do anything to him or to the village.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the woods.

He didn't only seem ignorant about what was going on. He also looked ignorant about who his enemies were and what they could do– something that could drastically tip the scale.

Somehow Sasuke also felt excited about fighting Houren – about knowing what he can do, about how strong he was in comparison to Uchiha Sasuke…

…If he was even worth Sasuke's time. He wondered how he would get him to fight him. His mission was to get the scroll Sakura was writing back to Konoha though, not free the village of a tyrant. Unless Houren made a move to stop him from taking the scroll to Konoha, he wouldn't be able to fight him.

How would he interfere if Sasuke made sure Houren wouldn't have a reason to think that Sasuke was a ninja who's mission was to get the scroll away from the village?

Sasuke scowled. He would need to discuss this with Sakura. Surely, she would want the village to be free from Houren.

Sasuke then felt something flying swiftly toward him again. He quickly leaped away from the tree, landing on the top branch of another far tree – his eyes watching three sharp icicles plunge themselves on the trunk of the tree where he stood on earlier.

...In the exact same place where he sat on just moments ago.

Then everything went silent. The breeze didn't even hum a tune.

Sasuke glanced sharply at everything around him, trying to look for whoever threw the icicles.

But he could see no one…feel no one…**sense** no one.

Sasuke eyed the direction from where the icicles came. He still couldn't see anyone there. Where on earth was his enemy?

He remembered the tracks he might have made on the snowy floor of the forest while he was walking home. He immediately eyed the path where he walked on, looking for foot prints.

There was none. Then Sasuke noticed something off on his view of the path. It looked slightly…warped?

Sasuke leaped toward the branch of the tree where the first icicles landed. The icicles were still there and for a moment he wondered if the enemy was till there as well – watching him.

Sasuke glared at the woods, taunting his enemy to attack him again…To show himself and fight him face to face.

The icy breeze gently touched his cheeks.

No icicles flew his way.

Sasuke decided to ignore the disturbing possibility that his enemy was greatly underestimating his skills. He instead turned his attention to the distorted image of the path he walked on.

From his perspective at that moment, the path looked…normal. He turned his head to look back at the last tree he leaped from. His view of the tree was clear – not distorted, not warped – normal for anyone with good eye vision.

He leaped toward another tree, ignoring the nagging feeling that his enemy was still watching him. He landed his feet on a branch that was seven feet away from the tree he leaped from. Sasuke looked down at the path again.

It was warped.

"We've set up barriers,"Daiki's voice echoed in his head_. _"…We, or rather a specific clan here that I unfortunately don't belong to, wield the chakra of everything around us. That's why when someone tries to find us using chakra signatures, they get nothing but the things around us – plants, trees, animals, insects…no humans."

Sasuke stiffened.

Was his enemy someone from that particular clan?

* * *

><p>Naruto slurped his ramen as he sat between Kiba and Chouji in Ichiraku. Shikamaru and Neji sat beside them. Naruto had ordered a bowl of ramen for each of them.<p>

Akamaru on the other hand lay asleep on the ground just behind Kiba – too sleepy to care for the scent of ramen since he and Kiba just came from a strenuous training with Shino.

It was lunch time and Naruto invited the four ninjas to eat with him since Kakashi was busy in a mission briefing and Iruka was still busy with academy chores.

Kiba stared at the pile of ramen bowls on Naruto's side of the counter. It was greater than one bowl over Chouji's own pile of ramen bowls.

"If you wanted a companion," Kiba began. "You could have just invited Chouji."

Naruto swallowed the bunch of noodles he devoured before he looked at Kiba. "But it's no fun eating with just one person," he said.

Kiba raised a brow at Naruto. "So you deceived all of us into coming here, making us all believe that you'll just be eating with either one of us?"

"Not me," Neji said looking down at his ramen bowl. "Naruto told me he wants to talk to me about something." He then glanced sharply at Naruto. "Or **someone**."

Naruto choked as Kiba and Chouji burst into laughter. Shikamaru just looked up at the bright sky, ignoring the bowl of ramen in front of him.

"So you're here to ask for Neji's approval!" Kiba teased. "And you called us here to support you?"

"He's all yours, Neji," Chouji said as he grabbed the full bowl of ramen on his table and prepared himself to glug its contents.

Naruto's cheeks were in flames. "Shut up! That's not why I called all of you here!"

"Why did you call us all here then?" Kiba asked nudging Naruto. "Don't even try to insist you just want to have lunch buddies."

Naruto's eyes gazed grimly at his lunch as he placed the bowl down on the counter.

He couldn't help but remember how Kakashi's eyes smiled regretfully at him just hours ago – how he had been seeing his sensei doing runs around the village early in the morning since Sasuke went away for his mission; how Kakashi had been training with him and Sai more fervently in the grounds for the past two weeks; how Kakashi's eyes frequently stared at nowhere when they took some rest after training…

...How he saw Kakashi stare forlornly at the team 7 picture Naruto kept in his bedroom when he dropped in for a visit.

He remembered how Sai smiled eerily at him when he asked him if he noticed how Kakashi was acting lately, and if he knew about why the village seemed to be increasing the number of Anbu guards in the vicinity.

"Do you know where Ugly is, Dickless?" he recalled Sai asking him. "How about where that Uchiha is?"

After that, Sai walked away from him with an alibi that he had to meet some people.

Naruto smiled apologetically at Kiba as he scratched his head. "Yeah," he said. "I just wanted to eat lunch with all of you. I mean, it's been a while since we did this."

Shikamaru sighed and looked droopily at the bowl of ramen. "What a drag," he muttered. "Just spill it."

Kiba, Chouji, Naruto and Neji looked confused at him.

"The mission is top secret," Shikamaru said ignoring their stares. "That's all I know."

Chouji looked down at his ramen just as Kiba looked down at his own.

They knew what Shikamaru meant.

Neji watched Naruto's face turn grim. "Which mission?" he heard Naruto ask.

"Uchiha's," Shikamaru answered sighing.

Silence loomed in their midst for a moment. Even the warm humming breeze didn't bother to break it.

"Rumor says he's given a month to finish it," Chouji said after putting down the half empty bowl of ramen in his hand.

Naruto turned to watch Chouji gravely gaze at the bowl.

"One month," Naruto said confirming what he heard. "Then he has what..? Two weeks left..? Is that why they're having Anbu ninjas doing rounds twice a day in the village?"

Kiba snorted. "That's not all that's happening," he muttered as he folded his hands in front of him.

Naruto turned to look at him – his brows raised in curiosity.

"The Hokage's being extra careful with distributing missions," Kiba said ignoring the sudden attention that Naruto gave him. He proded the noodles in his ramen bowl, remembering how many times he and Akamaru heard several jounins gossip about not getting enough missions lately, and how Shino had told him earlier about the Aburame clan receiving word from the Hokage about it.

"The known strongest ones, I heard," Kiba said, stirring his noodles. "…Are, as much as possible, kept away from missions that require ninjas to stay far from the village."

Neji looked away.

He knew that well. His family hadn't been out of the village for a mission in weeks. And Hinata's father had been making sure they were all in perfect shape. He had also noticed how Hinata's father seemed to meet frequently with the Hokage and the village elders.

It was as if the village was preparing for another war.

Shikamaru sighed and stared down at his bowl. He hardly touched his ramen.

Naruto turned to look hard at Shikamaru.

In truth, he wanted to ask all of them about what was really going on. It took him almost two weeks to notice the change that the village was undergoing since Sasuke left for his mission.

He first noticed an Anbu ninja leaping stealthily over the roof tops of several houses from his window while he was preparing instant ramen in his apartment as a midnight snack.

At first he thought it was just the usual rounds that ninjas guarding the village did. But he noticed more of them doing rounds on the nights that followed. A few days later, he began seeing Anbu ninjas stealthily patrolling the village in the afternoons.

Naruto also noticed how Kakashi seemed more absent minded since Sasuke left. He usually gazed out at nowhere when Naruto met him for a chat. And he rarely read his favorite book, saying that he had more important things to do, which usually turned out to be staring at nowhere.

Then Kakashi became busy attending several mission briefings and meetings. Despite being briefed several times for a mission, Kakashi never left for any mission. He just stayed in the village running laps around the village at dawn, training with Naruto and Sai in the morning, and disappearing in the afternoon for meetings with the Hokage.

Tsunade also acted differently. Naruto tried to confront her several times on what was going on in the village but instead of yelling at him or hurling him out of her office for disturbing her, she simply stared at him and had a group of Anbu ninjas drag him out of her office.

Tsunade had also been drinking sake on an hourly basis, not in a restaurant, but just inside her office. And Shizune hasn't been doing anything to stop her.

Naruto remembered how Shizune just watched Tsunade from the small space between the office door and its frame. The Anbu guards had successfully dragged him out of Tsunade's presence at that moment, and he was asking Shizune to help him convince Tsunade to tell him what was happening.

Shizune just smiled sadly at him. "Not now, Naruto," he remembered her tell him.

Something was up. And Naruto knew it had something to do with Sasuke's absence and probably…just probably…

"_Do you know where Ugly is, Dickless?"_

…Sakura's absence as well.

And Chouji, visiting the restaurant where a lot of ninjas went to eat; Kiba who with Akamaru were sharp when it came to listening to village gossip in the streets; Neji who was part of the Hyuuga clan that would surely be informed about any important matter concerning the village; and Shikamaru who had access to top secret information as a jounin, seemed like the best sources for the answers that Naruto was seeking.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked Shikamaru.

Shikamaru glanced at him. "You think I'll just answer that because you asked me that question?" he asked.

"So something really **is** brewing here," Kiba said looking at Shikamaru. Chouji glanced carefully at Shikamaru. Neji subtly watched the two.

Shikamaru closed his eyes and pushed his bowl of ramen in front to Naruto. "If you're all that paranoid," he said slumping sleepily on the counter. "…Go ask the Hokage that question," he said.

Kiba scowled. "You don't look canine enough to be anyone's dog, Nara," he said. "Just give us a straight answer!"

Shikamaru just sighed. "What a drag," he muttered. "If this is all you want to talk about, I'm going to go get some sleep."

Naruto's eyes hardened. "Where is Sakura-chan?" he asked.

Neji watched Shikamaru carefully as Kiba raised a brow at Naruto. Chouji filled his mouth with the ramen from his bowl.

"Eh? Isn't she in a mission?" Kiba asked.

Naruto looked unfazed at Shikamaru. "Where is she?" he asked.

"Hasn't Inuzuka answered your question yet?" Shikamaru answered.

Naruto tried his best not to snap at Shikamaru. "Where is she doing her mission?" he asked. "How long exactly has she been doing that mission? Weeks..? Months..? **Years**..?"

Shikamaru smirked.

Kiba stiffened at the realization. Chouji and Neji just watched Shikamaru.

Was he going to answer the question?

Naruto waited for Shikamaru to say something. But Shikamaru just yawned and stretched his arms up.

Naruto clenched his fists. Shikamaru wasn't planning on answering his question.

"Where is Sasuke?" Shikamaru heard Naruto ask harshly. He spared Naruto a bored glance. "Is he with Sakura-chan?"

Kiba swallowed hard. Why hadn't he thought about it before? The Konoha outlaw who wanted the village destroyed was out of the village without anyone to oversee him.

Of course Konoha should panic! Konoha should prepare for the worst!

But why hadn't he thought about it before? Ah! Right! …Because Sasuke had been accepted by the village. He had been given the freedom to live with everyone, walk with everyone, talk with everyone...

He no longer seemed to wish for Konoha's extinction.

Then why would they panic? Why the drastic preparations? Why were they expecting Sasuke to attack them?

Were they expecting Sasuke to change his view of the village? Was he going to go on another bloody rampage against Konoha?

If they feared that leaving the Konoha gates would give him back his negative views on the village, why did they send Sasuke away in the first place?

Sakura.

Sakura had been out on missions…or was it just one mission, just as Naruto asked? No one had seen her back in the village since she left two years ago with a group of Anbu ninjas, one of which was that comatose ninja in the hospital who…

…Who went back to Konoha just days before Sasuke went away for his mission!

Was it just a coincidence? Or did Naruto miraculously figure out what was going on?

Shikamaru looked drowsily at Naruto. "Look," he said. "I'm just a jounin. I don't give missions to everyone in the village."

"But you know something, don't you?" Naruto said glaring at Shikamaru. "Neji! You too!"

Neji folded his arms in front of him. "I'm not the Hokage, idiot," he said.

"But even **she's** distraught!" Naruto yelled as he stood up from his seat. "I know you've been secretly gathering information about it!"

Shikamaru stood up unfazed and looked Naruto in the eye. "If I've been secretly gathering information about it," he muttered. "What makes you think I'll spill everything I know out **here**?" he whispered.

Naruto stiffened.

Of course! There could be Anbu ninjas spying on them that very minute!

"I'm a jounin," Shikamaru said. "And I don't think I like to lose that title yet," he whispered before he walked away from the group.

Neji waited for a moment or two before he stood up.

"Hinata and I have a scheduled training," he said, placing bills on Naruto's table before he walked away.

"Wait!" Naruto said about to give the money back to Neji. "It's my treat!"

Neji paused and glared icily at Naruto.

Kiba, Naruto and Chouji stiffened.

Seeing how the trio didn't seem like they were going to do anything to stop him, Neji turned his head back to the road and walked away.

Naruto gritted his teeth and looked down at Shikamaru's untouched bowl of ramen.

He was right, wasn't he? Sasuke's mission involved Sakura, and the village was afraid that when Sasuke returns…Sasuke would once again want nothing but Konoha's destruction.

* * *

><p>Neji caught up with Shikamaru who was walking slowly with a bored expression on his face.<p>

"You know something, don't you?" Neji said.

Shikamaru spared him a glance. "You don't?" he asked.

"Not about Uchiha and Sakura," he said.

Shikamaru snorted and looked away. "Don't bother about that one," he said.

Neji eyed him carefully. "Does it involve something that happened four years ago?"

Shikamaru smirked. "You're asking me about top secret information, Hyuuga," he said.


	31. Chapter 31

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing Scroll. ^_ v

_Here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you think about it. Any of your theories on what's going on, ending up correct so far? ^ _v_ *_

* * *

><p>Shrieks echoed in the distance.<p>

Sakura's head shot up – eyes wide at the sky.

She spotted something grey stretching up from the ground to touch the cloudy sky at the distance.

"Another arson," Jirotaiku said standing beside her and eyeing the smoke.

She was in the woods with him, looking for medicinal plants. They were running out of medicines and they couldn't get enough supplies from the village down the mountain because of the threat of further spreading the plague.

Sakura stood up, leaving the shrub she was picking alone. Her eyes examined the smoke. For a smoke to be that large, the flame should be-

Sakura gasped. "The hospital!" she cried swiftly leaping toward the nearest tree. She bounded for one branch, then another – the leaves, the trunks…the trees moving in a blurr around her.

She suddenly felt someone grip her by the waist. She was about to swing a punch to hit it when she noticed that Jirotaiku was beside her – his arm pulling her close to him. "We won't make it with this pace," he said before his free hand hurled a scroll open in the air – a complicated seal drawn on the paper in thick black ink.

She watched Jirotaiku huff a gust of flame through his mouth, and for a moment an image of Sasuke flickered in her thoughts.

The flame burned the seal – making a hole in the scroll. Then the flames reached out to them, devouring them entirely.

Sakura found herself in the middle of a familiar room – tongues of flame steadily creeping up to its ceiling. High pitched screams echoed in her ears.

"This way," Jirotaiku said pulling her hand as he ran out of the room, half dragging Sakura to the burning hallway.

She realized then where they were – the second floor of the village's hospital.

"How did we get here?" she cried out as they passed the flames in haste.

"It's burning," Jirotaiku yelled in reply as he led her to the children's ward.

Sakura spotted Izuki running out to the hall carrying two unconscious patients on his shoulders, and holding two other patients against his side with each arm.

He saw them – sweat sliding down his forehead protector. "This floor is going down!" he cried as the crashing sounds echoed around them.

"The children!" Sakura shouted anxiously.

"We couldn't get in the infants' ward," Izuki answered as he ran down the hall with them. His eyes sharply eyed the windows – none of them seemed safe enough to be used as an exit, with the burning debris blocking the smoldering window frames. "Gaita's getting the toddlers out. Mito's getting the remaining bedridden patients."

"Aren't they even trying to put out the fire?" Jirotaiku said as they turned to a corner, eyes fixed at the path that was supposed to lead them to the infants' ward. "Can't Mito use his Suiten Takitsubo for this?"

"He tried," Izuki answered grimly. "The villagers have been pouring buckets of ica and water here since it began. It just doesn't want to die."

Sakura's eyes went wide in realization. She heard Jirotaiku curse.

Izuki spotted a good window in one of the rooms. "I'll be back," he shouted before he leaped out of the window.

Jirotaiku and Sakura ran into a room and found the small infant beds. They could hear their high pitched screams and cries of the infants. Sakura could see the ends of the barrier that surrounded them from the burning debris of the room.

"How long will his barrier hold?" Jirotaiku said.

"Not long," Sakura answered as she ran to get one infant. She could spot a wilting white flower on the floor. "Can you give me a hand?"

She saw Jirotaiku unfolding a scroll – the end of the sheet of paper touching the floor and stretching up to the ceiling like a wall. It had another black seal on it which Jirotaiku spits flames on once more. "Just hand me the infants," he yelled before he jumped into the burning paper, vanishing from the room.

Sakura quickly took another infant and turned to the scroll. Jirotaiku burst out of the scroll – arms stretched to get her load. She gave him the infants and ran to get two others as Jirotaiku vanished into the burning scroll again.

She continued to hand him the infants until there was no one else in the room but her.

"Jump in," she heard Jirotaiku yell before he vanished with the last two infants she saved. She was about to jump into the scroll when a large portion of the burning ceiling fell down on the scroll – crushing her only way out.

She gasped and sought for the white flower on the floor only to find it wrinkled and dry.

The barrier had fallen.

Sakura coughed, inhaling the thick smoke consuming the room.

"Sakura!" she heard Izuki's voice echo from outside.

"Izu-" she began, only to end with a strenuous cough. She fell to her knees and tried to crawl out of the room. The smoldering floor was burning her arms and legs. She could feel it sinking slowly down, threatening to collapse.

This was it. She was dying.

"What did you do?" she heard Kaitaro cry out in anger.

She turned her head back and saw Kaitaro glaring at Houren – the Houren with silk-like silver long braided hair. They were standing near the window of the house. In front of them was a view of Keiko running around cheerfully with her friends in the yard.

Sakura stared puzzled at the two. She knew that event. It happened one gloomy day. Kei died leaving Keiko catatonic. A week later, however, she woke up accepting her mother's death.

"Didn't you want her to move on?" Houren asked Kaitaro.

"I did! But I didn't want her to forget her mother!"

Houren glared at Kaitaro. "I didn't make her forget your wife!"

"What did you do then? Erased the fact that she is dead?"

"You want your daughter to be as good as dead?" Houren snapped. "You think that's what Kei would want for her?"

Kaitaro stiffened and looked away – tears streaming down his cheeks.

Houren looked out at Keiko. "I took much of her pain, yes," he said. "…But not her memory. You will have to be strong enough to cradle her to sleep at night. She will be dreaming of her grief until she's strong enough to get over the remaining pain of her loss."

Kaitaro looked up at Houren. "You took much of her pain," he said. "So she can smile again."

"So I do what I promised Kei before she died," Houren answered as he looked at Keiko.

Kaitaro looked sadly away, his hands wiping the tears from his eyes.

After a moment of hearing only Keiko's chuckles, Kaitaro began to speak again. "You said…you took much of her pain. Where is it now?"

"Nowhere that concerns you," Houren said turning away from Kaitaro.

But Sakura knew where it was. She knew because she had done what Houren did.

"There are…side effects," she heard Houren's voice echo from behind her. She turned to look at him and saw him sitting on a rock somewhere in the woods.

Houren looked calmly at her. "Have you had any good dreams lately?" he asked.

"Why do you ask?" she said.

Houren shrugged his shoulders. "If you had to do that technique to get him to cooperate," he said. "You're bound to not have dreams at night – just nightmares."

And for a moment Sakura sees the woods change into the Uchiha residence. Bloody corpses lay on her feet.

She looked at the ends of Houren's white robe and noticed how blood slowly crept up to it.

"Foolish little brother," Sakura heard Itachi's voice echo inside her head. "If you wish to kill me, hate me, detest me. And yet survive in an unsightly way."

"You may have the same eyes as your brother," she suddenly heard Danzo's voice echoing eerily inside her. "…but you perceive things differently. You do not value Itachi's sacrifice."

"You and I are flesh and blood," Itachi's voice whispered in the cold air. "I'm always going to be there for you, even if it's only as an obstacle for you to overcome. Even if you do hate me, that's what big brothers are for."

"…You just throw your anger at anything and everything," Danzo's voice echoed once more. "You have wasted the Uchiha clan's sacrifice."

"Forgive me, Sasuke," Itachi's voice said. "It ends with this."

"That's why you haven't been strong enough, even when he was still too weak to do anything," Houren said looking sadly at her.

Sakura looked up at him. "How do you get over this?" she asked.

Houren chuckled. "You think I've gotten over it?"

Sakura suddenly felt the floor sink underneath her feet. She gasped and looked anxiously down at the bloody ground.

The pavement warped – her feet sinking deep…deeper… Sakura gasped and suddenly found her self falling down into a dark pit with the rotting corpses.

Black flames hungrily devoured her – her heart pounding loudly in her ears.

"I hate to break it to you though," she heard Sasuke's voice echo in the flames as a pair of gigantic eyes of blood stared down at her. Everything in her body screamed in fear as she continued to fall into the abyss. "I have no use for weaklings like you," she heard him say before a streak of lightning plunged through her chest – surging burning pain throughout her body.

She winced, shutting her eyes. She was going to die anyway.

Then the pain was replaced with warm sturdy arms holding her…lifting her.

She opened her eyes and saw Jirotaiku's face – angry bright flames surrounding them. His eyes were grim but commanding.

He was commanding her to live.

"I still don't see why he's so…cooperative," she heard his voice echo inside her head though his lips don't open to speak. "All you did was stripp him of something anyone can live without, and keep him from regaining his devastating ego. He doesn't know he's killing you. And I don't even think he would care about it if he knew. So how come he's so…accommodating now?"

Sakura remembered how she smirked grimly at Jirotaiku that evening as they sat on the porch of the house in the woods.

"When you take something away, you need to replace it with something else," she heard her voice say in reply.

Sakura slowly saw herself leaning against Jirotaiku's neck – his arms holding her tightly from the flames. The bright colours of the fire gradually turned black. She suddenly saw a way out of the burning room – a hall of black flames right in front of them.

She felt Jirotaiku run toward it, carrying her securely in his arms. As they ran down the hall, a drop of warm water fell down on her forehead. She wondered for a moment how it could happen in the middle of a hall that was blazing with fire.

Then the warm water droplet slid down her forehead…reaching out for her nose. It was slightly thicker than water and oddly warm against her skin. She raised her hand to touch it. It left a stain on her fingertips – a dark red stain.

"What did you give him in exchange for getting all the horrors in his life?" she heard Jirotaiku's voice ask.

She looked up at the ceiling of the burning black flames only to find a ceiling of blood. It poured down on her, drowning her – causing her air passages to burn in pain.

"I just wanted him to realize that there was another way to revive his clan and its honor," Sakura heard her self say. She remembered her self standing in front of Houren again in the woods. "…A way that didn't involve the death of other innocent people."

Houren watched her jadedly at that moment.

"He's a ninja," she said. "His clan was a highly respected clan of ninjas. If he showed Konoha how worthy he is of receiving such high regards as a ninja…such great respect as an Uchiha, he would be able to revive his clan's honor."

Sakura tried to open her eyes, suddenly finding her self drowning in a pool of blood. Liquid blocked her air passages. She tried to breathe but everytime she inhaled, she felt something hard and heavy blocking her nose and throat.

"YOU'RE ALL THE SAME! YOU ALL DESERVE TO DIE!" she heard Sasuke's angry yell echo in the abyss.

Sakura choked – her throat constricting…she could barely supply her lungs with oxygen.

She wondered if it was easier if she just let all the blood invade her body…if she let it burn her insides and stop her heart from beating…

Perhaps it was.

* * *

><p>"SAKURA!" Sasuke called, kneeling anxiously beside Sakura who was slumped unconscious on her table.<p>

He hurried back to the house, remembering how Sakura could be in danger. His enemy in the woods didn't seem to mind him anymore. So he leaped hastily from one frosted tree to another, hoping to see Sakura safe and seated on her usual corner.

But when he caught the glimpsed through the open door of the house, he only saw a body slumped lifelessly on the small table.

Sasuke shook her shoulders. He had been shouting her name several times since he came. But she seemed too deep into unconsciousness to hear him.

He had checked her for any wounds. She didn't seem to have encountered an attacker. Sasuke feared that she fainted due to her sickness. She wasn't supposed to overwork herself after all.

For a moment he wondered if slapping her would wake her up.

"Sakura!" he said, gripping her shoulders tighter. Then he noticed how the back collar of her kimono hung loosely down the back of her neck – how it faintly showed a part of her back. He pulled the kimono up, only to notice a bandage…or a part of it that seemed to be wrapped around Sakura's body.

He stiffened – eyes fixed at the yellowish hue of the bandage. He couldn't seem to get himself to look away from it. Perhaps she was cold so she wore a bandage instead of a typical undergarment.

But something in that logic felt terribly off. It was…muddy. It hadn't been changed for quite a while. Somehow it reminded him of the bandages that covered her legs – the ones he changed and burned – the ones that hid her fresh, ghastly wounds from sight.

Sasuke found his hand travelling to the bandage, pulling the loose part that was directly below the back of her neck revealing…

His eyes went wide. He stopped breathing.

…Deep red…flaking and bloody…

Sasuke fell still and seated on the floor – his eyes fixed at the flesh of her back that resembled the flesh on her legs.

The reason why the bandage was loose on that part was because the skin that supposedly held it in its place had peeled off. It had stuck itselt onto the bandage, leaving a patch of bloody meat on the flesh.

Sasuke's eyes slowly travelled to Sakura's unconscious form. He saw a stain forming on the kimono – the part that covered her shoulders, where his hands tightly gripped her.

Suddenly his thoughts about Sakura's condition crashed back into his mind. How could he forget about the doctor's lie? The lie that explained the wounds in her legs… the lie that mentioned she had a similar set of wounds in her arms…And now…

Now Sasuke confirmed that the wounds were also on her back.

…On the third day of the second week of having the disease, the patient's inflamed skin burst like the boils that formed in the earlier strain of the epidemic…It resembled the ravaged skin on Sakura's legs.

Sasuke swallowed, pain slowly seeping into his chest.

The burns…They grow worse…And the patient starts to vomit blood – a sign of how terrible…how terminal the internal hemorrhage had become.

The patients died on the fourth week.

Sasuke was suddenly breathing deeply, heavily, raggedly.

He looked at Sakura's pale pink hair. His hand, now shaky as something inside his chest twisted in pain, combed the dull strands of her hair away from her face. It gave him a view of her face – eyes shut and lips unmoving. He touched the pulse in her neck and felt a faint beat.

She was alive. She was just unconscious. She must have fallen asleep – too tired to concentrate on the scroll.

He quietly and gently pulled her to his chest, lifting her head from the table and laying it against his beating heart.

It relieved the pain a little – the thought that she just fell asleep. It must have been a coincidence, his mind said suppressing the horrible possibility that had been tugging his consciousness – the wounds on her back. It must really be caused by the flames of the hospital that was burned down to the ground, just like Kaitaro said.

He was about to carry Sakura to her room when he noticed something odd on the paper – the scroll – on Sakura's table. It had round stains over a long diagonal line drawn in black ink. The line seemed like something that would form when a quill or a brush accidentally falls from your grasp while you're writing something.

Sasuke stared at the round stains – three round stains that nearly overlapped each other. Something inside him felt uncomfortable about doing so, but Uchihas were not cowards. A stain on a piece of paper wasn't something any sane person, especially an Uchiha, should be scared of.

Then it hit him – why something inside him didn't want to examine it further. But it was too late. He had figured it out.

He stiffly turned Sakura's face up to see it...And he did – the source of the stain.

On her nostrils were trails of blood, and from one of them fell a drop of blood that immediately made a round scarlet stain on his clothes.


	32. Chapter 32

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll.' _^ v ^

_I know I'm late so here's a slightly long chapter for this week. Do tell me what you think about it! _^ v *

* * *

><p>Sasuke gently slid the kimono down from Sakura's shoulders as he sat behind her in the living room.<p>

Upon seeing the blood on Sakura's nose, Sasuke's brain went haywire, confused on what he should do first – leave her on the floor to fetch the doctor, or attend to her wounds?

Too uneasy to leave her alone, he forced himself to calm down and stop the bleeding in her nose. He then decided to change her bandages since her breathing seemed normal. He had just finished changing the bandages on Sakura's arms when she regained consciousness. She sat her self up and let him continue his work.

Sasuke eyed the yellowish bandage wrapped around Sakura's back. The fire he lit in the hearth that heated the food he brought from Kaitaro's house, and the light from the lamps he lit in the living room, made its tint look worse.

Sasuke tried to look for the end of the bandage – the tip that was secured to another part of the bandage wraped around Sakura's chest and torso.

He tried not to imagine the horror of the wounds he would see. Her arms were in a fairly better condition compared to her legs, but they were still both mangled, as if vultures had fed on them.

"It's here in front," Sakura said weakly in a raspy voice.

Sasuke watched her for a moment.

They had been silent since he started changing her bandages. When she woke up, she only stared shocked and frightened at him, before she sat her self up.

Sakura lifted her arms slightly away from her body, giving Sasuke enough space to reach his hands out to her chest from behind her.

Sasuke raised his hands, trying hard to ignore the possibility of his hands brushing against her chest in search for the end of the bandage. His heart was pounding.

"It's slightly on the left," Sakura said.

Sasuke swallowed and reached his hands out around Sakura's side – his fingers lightly brushing the contours of her chest.

Sakura shut her eyes.

If it was any other time, she would have squealed in excitement. But the mere sensation of his fingers brushing on her bandages stung her terribly. And she was sure to feel more pain the moment he began peeling her bandages off.

Sasuke felt what his fingers sought for. He loosened the bandage and slowly began to pull the bandage away from her skin.

Sakura took a deep breath as Sasuke stripped her of the protection Jirotaiku placed on her wounds – the skin that replaced her damaged own.

The protection thinned with every gentle peeling Sasuke made and soon, Sasuke realized he was about to pull the last layer of bandage on Sakura's skin. He lightly tugged on the bandage sticking on Sakura's back and watched Sakura's body stiffen.

It was painful.

Sasuke thought of what to do. The bandage seemed too fixed on her skin in comparison with the bandages on her limbs, most probably because she had lay her weight on them so much when she was unconscious for days.

"I'm alright," Sakura said.

Sasuke knew she was lying but he knew stopping what he was doing right then and there wouldn't do her any good. He tugged on the bandage again, watching the cloth pull a portion of her skin.

He would peel off a part of her flesh.

Sasuke tightened his shaky hold on the bandage. He tugged on it, ignoring how pulling the bandage off left a bloody trail on the moist pink flesh that was Sakura's back.

He noticed Sakura's head droop as he stripped her skin of the bandage. Her arms were shaking – no doubt in pain.

Sasuke quickly patted her bloody flesh with wet cloth, washing and dissenfecting it. For a moment, Sasuke wondered how swollen Sakura's lower lip would be. By her stiffness, he knew that she was biting her lip from wincing.

He reached out to her chest, about to wash her torso when Sakura spoke, "NO."

Sasuke stiffened.

"Just the back," Sakura said breathily. "It's not as bad. No worries."

Sasuke pulled his hand back and placed the scarlet towel on the bucket of red water he placed beside him hours ago.

She was probably concered about him touching her breast, not that it bothered him. He was a ninja. He was prepared for anything.

Sasuke then swiftly but carefully put the new bandage he applied ointment on, over and around Sakura's exposed body. Once he was able to cover the wounds with a first layer of bandages, he relaxed and slowly put the second layer of bandages.

"You haven't told me how Konoha is," he heard Sakura say – her voice more relaxed and steady.

Sasuke paused for a moment before he wrapped her lower torso with the bandage.

What should he say about Konoha? The only thing he was happy about in Konoha was the improvement of his status.

"How is Naruto?" Sakura asked, as if hearing his thoughts.

"Annoying," Sasuke answered.

Sakura chuckled. "Still noisy..?"

"Very," Sasuke muttered, thinking that entertaining her would at least keep her attention from the pain he was inflicting with the bandage.

Sakura laughed. "He missed you, you know," she said.

"Hn."

Sakura smiled. She wondered what Naruto looked like – his wide smile, his hilarious facial expressions, the length of his blonde hair, the brightness of his blue eyes…

"Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke heard Sakura say as he reached his hand out to her chest – his hand about to lay the second layer of bandage over the contours of her chest.

"Is he okay?" Sakura asked, knowing Sasuke wouldn't give her any details.

"Hn," Sasuke answered as he continued to cover the first layer of bandages with another layer.

Sakura smirked. "Still reading his book?"

Sasuke thought for a moment.

No. In those few times he saw Kakashi, he wasn't reading anything. Either he was focused on making small talks with him, or he was busy staring at nowhere – times when Sasuke spied on him out of curiosity.

Naruto had been telling him about Kakashi acting odd for quite a long time now. And when Sasuke saw him alone in a tree in the training ground, he spied on him to see if it was true.

If seeing Kakashi staring at nowhere instead of seeing him reading the pornographic book he always carried was odd, then yes. He was acting odd.

Sasuke knew something was wrong – just as Sakura's absence told him something was not right.

Sakura sighed, hearing no response from Sasuke. "He knows I'm here," she said softly.

Sasuke looked at Sakura's pale pink hair. Her head was still bowed.

So Kakashi might also know that he was there with her. He might also know about her condition. And he didn't tell him anything about it? Not a hint about what he was going to see, not a word about who he was going to encounter…Well, Sasuke didn't get to talk to him before he left. Kakashi was filing a report to Tsunade about a mission when Sasuke walked out of the gates of Konoha.

"Yamanaka..?" Sakura heard Sasuke ask.

Sakura chuckled and shook her head, knowing that Sasuke asked her if Ino knew what Kakashi did. "Is she still pestering you?" she asked.

"She's Nara's girl," Sasuke answered preparing a third layer of bandages to protect her skin.

Sakura gasped in excitement. "Really! Shikamaru finally did it!"

Sasuke found himself smirking, hearing the cheerful Sakura he knew from when he was younger. "Hn," he said.

"How did he do it? How long have they been together? The last time I saw them, Shikamaru was still thinking if he wanted Ino, and Ino was jealous of Temari!"

Sasuke tried to imagine that day when he was walking down the street with Ino as his guide and guard. They saw Shikamaru talking to the blonde from Suna. Ino's cheeks were red in fury, but she didn't do anything. She just watched them talk – Temari laugh at something Shikamaru said, Shikamaru just look boredly at Temari.

He remembered how odd Ino reacted – how she pulled Sasuke away from the path to take a shortcut to where they were going, how her eyes looked sad despite the wide smile on her face. At that moment, Sasuke thought Ino did reach maturity after all.

"I'm sorry," Sakura said.

Sasuke stared at her.

"It's too troublesome to tell, isn't it?" she said. "I bet it's too bothersome to talk about."

"Nara was given a mission in Suna," Sasuke said as he began placing the third layer around Sakura's chest.

Sakura stared surprised at the table in front of her.

Was he really going to **talk** to her?

"Had to attend some wedding," Sasuke continued, wrapping the bandage just below her chest. "Naruto, Inuzuka, and Akimichi spread a rumor about Nara getting married in Suna."

"What?" Sakura gasped.

"Nara ignored them," Sasuke said keeping his eyes on the bandage he was working on. "Yamanaka took it seriously."

"Oh dear," Sakura said anxiously. "What happened? Did Ino confront him?"

"Hn," Sasuke answered wrapping the bandage around her torso. "Told him she liked him and she hoped he'd be happy."

"Oh," Sakura sighed sadly. She wanted to see Ino – hug her, comfort her, tell her everything was going to be alright. But she wouldn't need her anymore, right? What Sasuke told her, had already happened a long time ago.

Sakura's vision blurred. She felt guilty. She couldn't comfort Ino in the times she needed her. What kind of a friend was she? Surely not worth keeping.

"Nara laughed," Sasuke said, knowing that it saddened Sakura.

"Eh? He **laughed**?" Sakura asked aghast.

Sasuke remembered how he, Naruto, Kiba, Chouji, Lee, Neji, Hinata, Tenten and Shino spied on the two that day. Naruto dragged him there, saying it was important when it really wasn't. Neji was dragged by Tenten, and by the fact that the event would give Naruto a chance to be with Hinata.

Neji was strict about Naruto's courtship attempts with his cousin.

Chouji, and Kiba, dragging Shino there since they planned on using his insects to keep Ino and Shikamaru together long enough for something interesting to happen, were there to make sure Shikamaru's love life had a life.

Hinata and Tenten were there to support Ino's confession. Rock Lee was there because he was fascinated at the two's power of youth and true love.

Sasuke wondered at that moment where Sakura would be if she was there. He stood beside Neji back then, scowling at the disgusting scene Shikamaru was stuck in as Neji watched it with an apathetic face. Naruto and the others were eagerly peeping through the bushes.

He thought Sakura would be kneeling on the bushes with Naruto, praying Ino and Shikamaru to end up together. She might have attacked Shikamaru for laughing at Ino's confession if she was there. Naruto would have tried to keep her still in her place – keep her from killing Nara.

…If she was there…But she wasn't there.

"How could he **laugh **at her?" Sakura burst out in anger. "I bet Ino used up all her courage to say whatever she said!"

Sasuke smirked. "She walked out," he said.

"Damn right, she should walk out! He could have at least told her he was sorry that he couldn't reciprocate her feelings!"

"He kissed her," Sasuke said. He remembered how he and Neji started dragging the others away from the scene to give the two their much needed privacy the moment they saw Shikamaru pull Ino's arm back to stop her from walking away. Shikamaru had stopped Ino from shouting profanities at him by kissing her when Naruto and the others insisted they stay. It was too repulsive to watch for Sasuke, Shino and Neji so to get the others to cooperate, Sasuke swiftly hit the back of their necks to put them to sleep – something similar to what he did to Sakura before he left Konoha. He left the two girls conscious since Neji wouldn't want him to hurt any of them.

They left the scene, Sasuke carrying Naruto and Chouji on his shoulders, Kiba on Shino's, and Lee on Neji's. The two girls sadly followed them.

Sasuke suddenly thought if that was what Sakura expected from him the night she told him how much he meant to her – apologize to her because he couldn't reciprocate her feelings. Instead, he thanked her.

Sasuke looked up at her pale pink tresses. Her head was lifted now. She was feeling better.

If he told her "I'm sorry" instead of "thank you," would things between them be different? Would she still be the Sakura he knew back then? Or would she still be cold and distant?

Sasuke secured the end of the bandage on her side so he wouldn't have to grope her chest the next time he would need to change it.

It was too late anyway. Sakura was so far from him now with that Anbu ninja in her life. Perhaps that was better. He wouldn't like her hovering over him anyway...right?

"Aww," he heard Sakura sigh. "I didn't think Shikamaru would do that. I guess that's what he meant when he said his feelings were troublesome – it pushed him to do things he wouldn't normally do."

Sasuke looked up at Sakura's back. It was wrapped with white bandages. Sakura was the one who tended to his wounds when they were younger. She was always the one who worried about him and his well being. This time, it was him who tended to her wounds and he was the one who was worried about her state…Since when did he act so caring about someone other than him and and his clan?

…Feelings – it pushed him to do things he wouldn't normally do…

"You want to ask me something," Sakura said softly.

No. He didn't want to ask her anything.

Sasuke felt his chest throb. He knew what she meant, what she was going to say if he asked her, and he didn't want to hear her answer for some reason.

He bowed his head.

"You can ask me," Sakura said calmly. "You caught me anyway…No point in lying now."

Sasuke tried to clear his head. It was irrational – to be scared of asking her a simple question answerable with a yes or a no…to hear the answer he knew she would give. He might as well just say it, for the record.

"You're sick," he said, his voice almost failing at the last word.

"Yes," she said.

Sasuke shut his eyes. It was like a boulder just fell on top of his chest. He clenched his shaking fists. He took several deep breaths.

"You have a more important question," Sakura said. He knew he had been reading some of her notes. By Sasuke's reaction, she knew he already had a hint on what was going on.

NO. No, he doesn't have a more important question…Yes. He does but he knew the answer and he didn't want to hear it.

"You're…" Sasuke said, unable to find the word that was supposed to follow it.

"…Dying, yes," Sakura said.

Sasuke stood up, gathering the worn bandages and the first aid from the floor. He had to do something else. His vision was blurring, his chest was heaving, his heart was pounding excruciatingly against his sternum, and his limbs were trembling. He had to do something else…something else so Sakura wouldn't notice…

He threw the bandages on the flames of the hearth and realized that the food he was preparing was almost done – food from Kaitaro's house.

"Keiko has a letter for you," he said trying to make his voice even.

"Oh," Sakura said.

Sasuke fished the letter from his belt and handed it to Sakura – his eyes fixed on the flames of the hearth.

"Thank you," Sakura said gingerly taking the folded piece of paper. She wasn't sure if she would be able to open it since her limbs were still sore. "What's it about?"

"Anrui flower," Sasuke answered. "A flower that…" He stiffened. It was a flower that healed any wound and illness…and Sakura had notes about it. Could it also heal her sickness?

Sakura stared puzzled at the letter. "Anrui flower..?"

"You know about it?" Sasuke asked glancing sharply at Sakura.

"Yes," Sakura said, eyes fixed on the letter - wondering why Keiko would write about it all of a sudden. "I did a research about it and-"

"Is it real?"

Sakura stared confused at Sasuke. She realized then that it was part of a Houren's ploy for Sasuke to seek the flower – to talk to him, to get him away from the danger Sakura was about to face…To help Sasuke learn the truth.

Sakura thought for a moment. Sasuke shouldn't find a cure for her. He should get the scroll back to Konoha - **that** was his mission. Seeking the flower would divert his attention from the mission. Houren might find a way to save Sakura's life after all.

And that **wasn't** part of Sakura's plan.

Should she tell him then?


	33. Chapter 33

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll'_ ^ v ^

_I just read the reviews for chapters 32 and 31 today. _

_You got **that** right, _**Timber Wolf of Purity! **_Sasuke felt, hence the lack of the numb-related descriptions._

_Thank you, _**Sasuke is Hot 0012!** _That's really overwhelming ^ v ^ I'm glad you're enjoying this story._

_I don't know what it tells about you either, _**Sibrael**_. But I'm happy you like my story. Ooh and I like your name! Is that a variation of Gabriel?_

_Anyway, here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you think about it. _^ v *

* * *

><p>"We have word on the location of Haruno Sakura," Houren told Kasaru and his team as they stood in the hall of Houren's palace – his fingers trailing down the ends of his blonde hair.<p>

Ijira stiffened.

Would Houren really share factual information about Haruno with them? Houren seemed sharper than he is showing them - confident enough that Ijira's group won't betray him, which is just...off. For a village chief who grew up in a village that didn't trust outsiders that much, he was being too helpful.

Would Houren put them all in a trap and kill them?

Kasaru didn't seem worried about the possibility of Houren playing with them. He firmly believed it was the other way around – the Oto ninjas were playing with Houren. That was one problem Kasaru had - assumed too much. It was a miracle that he received the position to lead their team.

Zumi smirked as Kasaru smiled gladly at Houren. "That's good news," Kasaru said.

Ijira kept himself from sighing. Zumi, like Kasaru, believed too much on herself. She rarely thought about how others might be stronger than her, most likely because none of the opponents she had fought with had lived to defeat her. To convince her that something was fishy about Houren's act toward them would sound like she was being an idiot – which she really was.

At the moment, Ijira had no choice but to act like Houren was fooling him too.

"Yes," Houren said, face apathetic. "We have two places where she is most likely hidden in. Since there are two locations, I figured that we could both search the places at the same time just to make sure she doesn't slip from our hands."

Kasaru raised a brow at Houren. "What do you want to do, exactly?"

"We team up," Houren answered. "Your team raids one location, my team the other. I'll have you choose which of the locations you will raid."

Kasaru smirked. "You're very kind," he said.

"I'm just making sure that our village's secret remains a secret," Houren said.

"Of course," Kasaru replied. "Shall we see the locations?"

"Certainly," Houren said inviting them to walk out of the hall and into another room.

Ijira warily followed them. Houren was being too cooperative. They get to choose what place to raid? Certainly, there was a catch? A trap..? What were the odds that none of those locations had Haruno?

* * *

><p>Sasuke rummaged through the pages of Sakura's journal.<p>

He left Sakura sleeping in the bedroom. He knew it felt terrible for Sakura, but she insisted that the ointment he used on the bandage had soothed her wounds – that she would be able to rest whilst lying flat on the futon. But to make sure she was comfortable, Sasuke lined the futon with spare blankets and quilts from the cabinet in the room.

Once he was sure that Sakura was asleep, he slipped out into the living room were her small office was.

Symptoms…Days…Patient 1…Tests….

Sasuke turned the pages, barely reading the hand-written scribbles on it. He was looking for a page that contained "cure," "remedy," "flower"…

"Anrui," Sasuke breathed as he saw the script written on one of the pages.

Sakura **did** have a record of the flower.

He remembered what she told him about the flower – that they considered it as a source of the cure for the initial strain of the epidemic, but that it was a myth. It did not exist. They had already tried to look for it, just in case it existed.

And they failed. Jirotaiku failed.

Sasuke slid his fingers down the page, reading the text thoroughly.

A white flower that grows in the woods…A glowing white sap flows down from the center of the flower – the supposed elixir that could cure any wound and illness…Flower droops as sap is released…like it was crying…

He asked Sakura if it could cure the new strain of the illness. Sakura said there was a possibility, but it couldn't mean much without them proving that the flower was real and that it indeed cured any illness.

Sasuke turned the page and saw a sketch that Sakura must have made of the flower. It looked like…a white lily? But it was supposed to be smaller – the size of a daisy. It grew at the top of a snow covered boulder.

"Boulder..?" Sasuke remembered him ask Sakura earlier.

"Yes," Sakura said. "The boulder or stone where villagers here belive the unnamed Snow Spirit's lover first met him."

Sasuke grunted at the memory. That was why Sakura said it was a myth – it didn't just seem too good to be true, it was also connected to the Snow Spirit myth.

But myths, though illogical and fiction were still hinged on facts! Facts that might have been construed as the narrative of the events were passed on from one generation to another.

Perhaps the Snow Spirit doesn't exist. But the plant could! Based on Sakura's notes, the people had believed their ancestors used it quite frequently before it vanished. They stopped seeing the plant when the Snow Spirit supposedly vanished – decided to live in the shadows.

Sasuke stood up and walked to the bedroom where Sakura slept. He gazed at her still form on the futon. Her breathing was constant but heavy. Her face was still but weary.

He still couldn't understand her state – the stage of her illness. Yes, she admitted that she was…

Sasuke shook his head. The symptoms matched the latter stages of the illness, but the timeline, the duration looked...wrong. She should have gotten the illness on around the same time he arrived in the village. But by the looks of her wounds, she had had it for a long time before he was sent there for his mission.

The illness seemed to have paused for time and only resumed its development when…he arrived. Sasuke clenched his fist and looked away.

Something stopped the illness from growing worse for a time – that was the only reason why Sakura's symptoms didn't match the record on her notes, or at least what he had read so far in her journal.

That meant…

Sasuke walked into the bedroom. He sat down beside her and held her hand. Sakura squinted but didn't wake up. He noticed how stiff her arm was and figured that she was having another nightmare.

He gently brushed her hair with his fingertips. "You're dreaming," he whispered softly. "It's not real. I'm here."

Sakura's face softened and for a moment Sasuke thought she had escaped the nightmare she was having.

Escaped…Sasuke's face hardened. There was a way to escape the fate that the illness had put its victims through. If Sakura found a way to stop it temporarily, that meant the illness had a weakness and therefore…a cure.

He just had to look for it.

Sasuke fixed his eyes on the bedroom wall across him in thought. He had rummaged through Sakura's notes about the disease. He found some of the medications that Sakura used to cure the initial strain of the epidemic, but based on her notes the said medications did nothing to the new strain.

…Which meant he had to start from scratch, as Sakura did. So far, her notes didn't mention anyone who survived the new strain – all of them died. And she seemed to be the last victim of the illness. Perhaps that was why she stayed in the village – she wanted to find a cure for her self. But with her condition, it didn't seem possible anymore.

Perhaps that was why he was there – to help her out. She must have figured that he wouldn't be too enthusiastic to see her again, hence the pretence that he was there to transport the scroll to Konoha. But in truth, he was there to help her out.

She must have been too embarrassed to seek his help, what with all the things that happened between them.

Sasuke gently pulled the blanket up to cover Sakura's shoulders.

It was time he returned the concern that Sakura had given him. He would save her life, just as she did tp him four years ago after his fight with Naruto. He would take care of her the way she did when he was locked up in prison.

Sasuke will keep her alive.


	34. Chapter 34

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing "Scroll." _^ v ^

_Here's this week's chapter._

_Oh and I need comments on an ebook I made for . The title is "Shards" - it's a book with three drabbles (the traditional 100-word story ones). I made it out of an insane decision to join a drabble contest, try my hand on writing a drabble (yes, it was my first time to do so) and test the waters. Anyway, if you have time, do check it out and tell me what you think about it. Just in case you want to try publishing books there (I am so not getting paid for this, huhu), setting up an account there is free. Hmm, come to think of it, you also might need to set up an account to leave a comment. Oh well, it's free anyway, and you can disable the account anytime, haha!_

_So there. I'm not forcing you to check it out, okay? But reading your comments, just like your reviews here, would be really helpful. _* v *

_ Anyway, do tell me what you think about this chapter. _^ v ^

* * *

><p>Sakura stared at the blank paper splayed on her table.<p>

She was supposed to be writing there. But her arms were sore. She hadn't tried picking the quil up from its place on the corner of the table, afraid of the pain that she would feel once her muscles moved.

Sakura looked out at the hearth where Sasuke was busy cooking soup. It smelled mouthwateringly-tasty.

She looked away. There was a great possibility that she wouldn't be able to eat any of what Sasuke would be cooking in the future.

Tragic. Sasuke was quite a cook.

Sakura closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. The pain was still there. But if she didn't start writing, Sasuke would notice that something was wrong with her. She had been sitting there for fifteen minutes after all.

She lifted her right arm. She bit her lip. The pain was worse than the burning sensation she had felt before. It was just pain – pure pain…excruciating pain.

She tried to ignore it, lowered her hand to the quill, forced her shaking fingers to pick the quill up…

Sasuke heard something drop on the floor.

He turned his head to Sakura's direction and saw her leaning down on the floor – her fingers shaking as she tried to pick the quill up.

Sasuke felt something inside him twitch. He knew something was wrong when she just stared at the blank paper. He knew she was in pain and she was trying to hide it from him. He wanted to go to her aid, but her cold eyes told him she would only be hurt if he did.

Sakura, through the years of living away from him…of having someone else she could love, had grown a pride – a pride that didn't want to receive anything from Uchiha Sasuke.

Sasuke stood up quietly, ignoring what Sakura would feel at his advance. She needed help. And he could give it…For old time's sake.

Sakura saw Sasuke's fingers pick the quill up from the floor. She stared up at him.

He looked apathetic as always…which was why she didn't want him there. He was doing it all out of pity and she didn't want to be pitied.

She didn't deserve any pity, especially the pity that came from **him**…him whom she had done horrible things to…

Sasuke just kept his eyes on her pale green ones, telling her he wasn't going anywhere and that he wasn't going to let her push him away.

"Thank you," Sakura said, trying to ignore the hint that his eyes were sending. She reached out her hand to take the quill from his grasp.

Sasuke kept the quill in his hand.

Sakura raised a brow at him.

He just stared at her.

She frowned, telling him to give the quill up.

Sasuke just sat down in front of her. Their eyes glared and stared at one another for a moment…before Sakura looked down in defeat.

"What do I write?" Sasuke said dipping the quill in the bottle of ink on a corner of the table.

"The date today," Sakura answered.

Sasuke did as he was told, making sure he wrote it on the part of the paper where he saw the dates on the other pages were. After that, he looked up at her.

Sakura took a deep breath and sighed. "Take my pulse rate," she said, handing him her wrist.

Sasuke did as he was told – gently pressing three fingers of her her wrist knowing it would be painful for her.

After a minute, he wrote down "65 beats per minute."

Sakura smirked.

He raised his brow at her, wondering what it meant.

Was she better?

"Take my temperature," she said, pointing to the small kit that lay next to the table. "After that, you'll have to describe everything you saw under my bandages."

Sasuke stared at Sakura. The scroll she was making…was a record of everything that was happening to her, wasn't it? Since she was the only remaining survivor of the new strain…

Sasuke looked away and picked the medic kit up, fishing out a thermometer.

After recording 38.7 for her temperature, he began writing down descriptions about her wounds, starting with the ones he saw on her arms.

"Make sure you write down everything you noticed and saw," he heard Sakura say – her eyes fixed on the paper he was writing on.

Sasuke thought for a moment. Perhaps the details he was writing weren't enough. But merely remembering what the wounds looked like was painful. To think of the words to describe them – torture.

But he did what he was told, with the best of his abilities. The details were important in knowing what the disease could do, and perhaps even it would give the Hokage clues on how to make a cure.

…Which was his other option to save Sakura – get her back to Konoha where the Hokage could make a cure to her illness. And since he knew what the scroll was exactly, he was sure it would work.

Why else would Sakura write a medic scroll about the illness, and have a Konoha ninja make sure it was taken to Konoha once it was finished?

After a moment of writing down his descriptions for Sakura's wounds, he looked up and noticed how hard Sakura's eyes were on his script.

She must have developed a conclusion based on his account. Would she tell him about it? He knew her state already anyway.

"Now you'll have to write down everything that I tell you," she said, her pale green eyes still on the paper.

Sasuke positioned his quill on the next blank line of the page and soon, he was hearing about the pain Sakura was feeling in her legs, arms, back, lungs, chest, stomach, throat...

…Headaches, dizziness, nausea, breathing difficulties, loss of apetite…

Sasuke wrote them down stiffly.

…How the ointment barely saved her from the pain, how she couldn't lift the quill anymore…the list went on and on.

After what felt like forever, Sakura told him "That's it," she said. "Write your whole name and sign your name on it, after that last line."

Sasuke did as he was told. Sakura told her to place it on the pile of notes on one part of the desk.

After that, they sat there in silence – neither one daring to look straight at one another.

Sasuke had his eyes on the papers. He had his fists clenched tightly on his lap.

Sakura had her eyes cast down on the table.

"You can go now," Sakura said softly, breaking the silence that was eating them up.

Sasuke looked at her.

Sure he was thinking about his daily work in the clinic, but not in the way that Sakura thought he was - which he was sure involved a degree of impatience on his part.

He was thinking of how to tell the doctor that he wasn't in the mood to be there. Knowing about Sakura's condition, about how her illness was progressing, about how much pain she was suppressing…

He just couldn't bring himself to leave her there alone, even just for a couple of hours.

"Breakfast," he said, trying to distract her from the subject.

"Oh right," Sakura said, pretending she hadn't thought about how she might not be able to feed herself with the pain in her limbs.

And by tomorrow, she had a feeling her digestive track would start squirming against accepting and digesting food.

Sasuke watched her blank eyes and knew something was wrong.

"I can feed myself," she said. "You can go. You're late."

Sasuke clenched his fist tight. He wanted to yell at her…shout at her to stop keeping secrets from him because he wasn't an idiot!

But Sakura was trying to be strong. He had always told her how much he hated her weakness and now that she wasn't acting weak in front of him, he would hate her too?

Sasuke stood up, acting apathetic at everything looming around him. She was just another ninja he had to put up with while on a mission. He went to the hearth, filled a bowl with soup, and placed the bowl in front of Sakura.

He then set out to the woods.

Sakura watched him vanish into the morning fog. She looked down at the warm soup.

It would be the last time she would actually be able to eat. Tomorrow, she would have Sasuke attach an IV to her arm.

She winced as she lifted her squirming limbs up to touch the bowl.

* * *

><p>It didn't take long for Sasuke to reach the portion of the woods where he noticed the barrier.<p>

He made an hour long walk into a fifteen-minute one – that was how pissed he was.

Sasuke sighed, unlocking his jaws and releasing his gritting teeth.

It wouldn't be wise to face the doctor in such a bad mood.

But he was so angry! He was so angry that he didn't just yell at Sakura earlier! He was so pissed that he didn't have any idea about how she was feeling! He was so mad that he couldn't give her anything to save her from the pain!

Sasuke cursed and hurled his fist on the nearest tree, a loud thump echoing across the icy woods. It was followed by another punch, a swift kick, another kick, another punch, an arm chop, a punch…

The wood cracked with every earth-shaking hit…and Sasuke's vision blurred with every shade of anger he released.

He stopped, gasping for breath just before the tree went down, uprooted and cut in half, on the ground.

Sasuke felt sweat slide down his face. His body was drenched but he knew the cool wind would dry it in no time.

He hurled another kick on the tree just to save it from the hassle of resisting gravity. It fell down, rocking the ground with a deafening growl.

Sasuke wiped his wet eyes. He felt like he was having hiccups. He coughed and breathed deeply several times to calm himself.

He then walked through where he was sure the barrier was.

He had things to do, and he needed all his guts to do it.

* * *

><p>"She's sick," Kaitaro heard Sasuke say as he arranged the medicines on the cabinet.<p>

He gave Sasuke the task of checking the supply of cotton and bandages in the clinic.

Sasuke had been extra quiet since he walked into the clinic. He didn't even greet him. Sasuke just nodded his head when Kaitaro and Keiko greeted him "good morning."

Kaitaro looked up from his work. "Sakura-san," he said.

"She's sick with the same illness that killed your wife," he watched Sasuke say as he arranged the roll of bandages in a box.

Kaitaro's face dropped. "Yes," he mumbled. The symptoms must have been too obvious to keep the fact away from him.

"She can't lift the quill anymore," Sasuke said.

Kaitaro sighed. She was worse…far worse than he hoped.

"Where is it?" he heard Sasuke ask.

Kaitaro looked up, eyebrows raised.

Sasuke had his dark eyes hard on Kaitaro's own. "Where is the Anrui flower?"


	35. Chapter 35

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll!'_

__Don't worry, _**kurohime1024. **^ v ^ _You're not the only one who's confused on what Sakura did to Sasuke. It will come out soon. Some facts in the story should be revealed later when Sasuke faces the white-haired Houren, which will happen very soon. __

__Thanks, __**Mathematica-chan**__! Just open , and search for my name there (It's Callele Lyvance. I had an account before but I forgot the password for it. So when I made another account, I couldn't use 'Callele Lyvance' anymore. I just placed my last name before my first name.) It should show you the book. __

__Great question __**Reignashii! **^ v ^ _You're really good at this!_

_Anyway, since _**Umm** _said the previous chapter was too short, this week's chapter will be slightly longer (word count wise). _

_Do tell me what you all think about it! _^ v *

* * *

><p>"He asked for the flower?" Houren asked Kaitaro – an eye brow raised at the doctor.<p>

Kaitaro nodded, looking down at his cup of tea.

They were in the middle of the living room. Kaitaro had dismissed Sasuke early so he could attend to Sakura. He was sure she would need someone there to help her move around the house.

He also made sure Sasuke had enough stock of dextrose fluid bags for Sakura. Based on Sasuke's descriptions about her condition, she would be having a bad case of internal hemorrhage soon.

Houren stood by the window – the glum light making the strands of his white hair seem silver. Kaitaro sat on the floor. Keiko was still playing outside.

"And what did you tell him?" Houren asked.

"I told him what you have passed on to me," Kaitaro said.

Houren nodded and looked out at the window.

Kaitaro looked up at him. "Are you not going to meet him there?"

"If she is as bad as you say she is," Houren began. "He would think twice about leaving her."

Kaitaro froze. "Then…how would he…"

"She will convince him," Houren said.

"She didn't even tell him where the flower is," Kaitaro said. "I bet she's thinking twice about letting him in on what's going on."

"Anything she does from this point on will motivate his need to find the flower," Houren confidently said. "The more she protects him, the more he craves for what she is protecting him from."

"So if she stops protecting him," Kaitaro said. "And she lets him do as he pleases…"

"He will meet me," he said. "The same will happen if she tries to keep him away."

Kaitaro nodded. "But what if she persuades him to go back to Konoha with her instead?"

Houren smirked. "Then we know how all of this will end," he said. "And I'll start offering flowers to her name engraved on the memorial tree."

* * *

><p>Sasuke added firewood on the flames of the hearth. He could see Sakura sitting on the porch from where he was.<p>

When he came back, Sakura was on the porch – her feet on the snow. She was shaking a little but she insisted to stay there.

He knew why. The chilly air soothed her wounds…numbed the pain…

Sasuke sighed.

But it endangered her more. He almost lost her because of hypothermia before.

After putting the pot of stew over the hearth, he stood up and walked to Sakura. He sat down next to her, listening to the howl of the cold wind.

It was still around noon but the sky was already gloomier than usual.

"How was the clinic?" Sakura asked, breaking the silence between them. She had her hands clasped over her lap.

"Not that many patients," Sasuke answered. He looked down at her hands. The ends of her kimono sleeves covered them. "How are you?" he asked.

Sakura froze for a moment, surprised that Sasuke asked about how she was. You don't hear that from Uchiha Sasuke.

"I'm alive," she said, trying hard not to blush at the thought that he cared about her in some way.

Sasuke nodded.

Another cloak of silence fell over them, but it didn't take long before Sakura lifted it with a sigh.

"I was thinking," Sakura began.

Sasuke looked at her. Her pale green eyes were focused on her lap "I already have enough record on the illness," she said.

Sasuke looked out at the woods. He knew what she would say next.

"You can take the scroll back to Konoha," she said.

Sasuke nodded and stood up. "I'll get your things," he said.

Sakura stared confused at Sasuke. "My things..?"

Sasuke looked down at her. "We're going back," he said. "The mission is finished."

Sakura glared at him. "I said you can take the scroll back to Konoha," she said as Sasuke turned to the door.

"Hn."

"I'M NOT THE SCROLL!" Sakura yelled.

Sasuke stopped. He took a deep breath.

Sakura could see how tight his fists were clenched.

"You said the scroll is as good as finished," he began in a calm and even voice. "Why stay here? You're mission is done."

"You know nothing about my mission," Sakura said.

"Then what **is** your mission?" Sasuke snapped, turning to glare at Sakura. "What is your mission here? Why are you still planning on staying here?"

"It's none of your business!"

"It **is** my business!" Sasuke replied. "It **is** when your life is on the line!"

"I'm not your mission, Uchiha!" Sakura snapped back. "I'm just another ninja you have to put up with until you're done with your own mission! And I'm telling you now, your mission is **done.**"

It was true. Sasuke knew it was true. That was what Sakura was – an accessory in his mission...a dispensable accessory…

"NO YOU'RE NOT!" Sasuke shouted before he could think further on what to say. His fists were shaking. His heart was pounding hard and angrily against his chest.

The numbing was there…but it was overpowered with that overly familiar pain you feel when you're emotionally crushed.

"Yes I am," Sakura said firmly. "Uchiha, I'm not your teammate anymore," she gently said, letting the words sink into Sasuke's thoughts.

Sasuke stared at her for a moment.

She was right. She was just another Konoha ninja now. She no longer shared a mission with him.

"You're still Haruno Sakura," he muttered before he could stop himself.

Sakura sighed and looked away.

Sasuke turned back to the door and began walking into the bedroom.

"I'll let you in on a secret," he heard Sakura say before he could reach bedroom door.

Sakura smirked as she laid her eyes on the empty horizon.

"I can't leave this place," she said. "I can't even leave this house."

Sasuke turned and stared confused at Sakura.

"I tried to get away from here once," she said. "They were on their way to Konoha with Jirotaiku. I was supposed to go back to Konoha with them. But after running a few leagues from this house, I started coughing out blood."

Sasuke felt numb. It wasn't like the numbness he had felt before, which was usually just focused on his chest.

It was the kind of numbness that creeped through his veins – a numbing sensation that slowly turned to pain…from the tips of his fingers…crawling up to his limbs…

"I fainted," she said. "When I woke up, I was back here. The doctor said I slept for a week."

Sasuke swallowed.

He remembered the first time he saw her there – standing on the snow in front of the house. He remembered how Keiko visited the house to give her food. He remembered how she ordered him to go to the market.

She didn't order him around so she could finish the scroll. She did it because she couldn't do those things.

Why didn't he see it? Of course! He was too busy figuring out all the mystery around him to actually pay attention to Sakura. Perhaps that was it, the reason why they kept him blind. They wanted to keep him distracted from what lay in plain sight before him.

"The doctor said some of my organs bled," Sakura continued. "I had a lot of bruises. My veins couldn't handle the sudden change in my blood pressure so I wasn't allowed to move much after that. And the sudden change in air pressure when I tried to go down the mountain also contributed to the internal hemorrahage I had."

Sasuke sat himself down on the floor, suddenly feeling too heavy to stand. He fixed his eyes on the flames that were heating the pot of stew.

"To sum it up," Sakura said. "I can't go back to Konoha. Or perhaps I can, but I wouldn't be alive enough to know that I've reached the village."

Sasuke bit his lower lip. His vision was blurring. The flames were causing his eyes to be teary.

"I'm sorry," he heard her whisper gently…weakly.

Sasuke wiped his eyes. That was one option down.

She wouldn't make it to Konoha. Even if the Hokage found the cure using her notes, it wouldn't save Sakura's life.

Sakura covered her lips with her fingers. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She was biting her lower lip, and based on the rusty liquid she tasted, her lower lip was already bleeding.

She wanted to go home. She wanted to go back to Konoha with Sasuke and wake up the next morning without an illness threatening to kill her. She wanted to see Naruto, tell Kakashi everything was going to be alright, tell Tsunade she was better, give Jirotaiku the cure, force Ino to tell her everything that happened between her and Shikamaru…help Sasuke re-adjust himself in Konoha.

But there was no way she would be able to reach Konoha alive, not when her internal organs were too frail to the changes in air pressure, not when her veins were too fragile to changes in blood pressure, not when active movements killed her.

She suddenlt felt a thick quilt drape itself over her shivering shoulders.

"Let's get back inside," she heard Sasuke whisper softly in her ear.

She began to sob. She didn't want to but she had deprived herself of the comfort of showing emotions for so long that her body didn't want to stop anymore.

She then felt herself being pulled gently into warm arms – her face resting on Sasuke's chest, her ear listening to every thump his heart made, and his voice whispering soothing words through her hair.

It was as if it wasn't Sasuke who was holding her.

No, it wasn't Jirotaiku either.

But…it was…

"_You didn't know him before he lost his family," Houren said. "How would you know this isn't him?"_

Tears flooded her eyes. It was Sasuke who was holding her – the Sasuke she unconsciously made that horrible day, four years ago.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke heard Sakura whisper agains his chest as she wept. "…I'm so sorry."

Sasuke sighed and gantly patted her head.

He wasn't sure what he was doing, but he hated seeing her in that frail state. He looked out at the woods – his eyes seeking answers to questions he couldn't discern, as if the gloomy forest held everything he needed at that very moment.

And perhaps it did. It held his only hope of saving Sakura's life, didn't it?

* * *

><p>"Are you sure about this?" Akio anxiously asked Houren as he served him his evening tea.<p>

Houren was busy smiling at his reflection in the mirror. He was fitting a new robe – a robe he planned to wear in his victory pyre.

"About what?" Houren asked, flipping a lock of blonde hair away from his shoulder.

"About having those Oto ninjas raiding the other location," Akio said as he handed him a steamy cup of the tea.

Houren chuckled. "You think too lowly of me, Akio," he said turning to face him with a proud smile on his face. He received the cup and sipped the tea. He sighed as the tea slid down his throat. "I am not a god for nothing," he said.

Akio looked away. "I understand," he said. "But I just don't see why we should give them the opportunity of-"

"Arresting her..?" Houren asked. "You actually thought I gave them that opportunity?"

Akio stiffened.

Houren burst into laughter as he sat down on a chair near his bed. "I'm telling you," he said. "They can do nothing – **nothing**…Not while they're in my territory."

"So she won't be there?" Akio asked. "They won't find Sakura in the place they chose?"

Houren chuckled. "Of course they won't," he said. "That wouldn't be pretty, now, would it? They'll just end up dead with Uchiha there."

Akio smiled. "So we'll do the raid tomorrow," he said.

"Yes," Houren said looking out at his window. He smiled at the gloomy sky. "So make sure the dungeon is ready."

* * *

><p>Sasuke found himself walking down the dark pavement that led to his home – the compound where he grew up with his brother.<p>

He didn't remember how or when he reached Konoha. What he did know was that he was there and he didn't like it.

He glared at the empty compound.

It brought back memories…nightmares…terrors…

"Lost?" he heard his voice echo from behind him.

He stiffened and turned around to face the person who sounded so much like him.

His eyes widened at the sight of Uchiha Sasuke – the Uchiha Sasuke with blood-thirsty eternal mangekyou sharingan eyes. He wore the clothes that the rogue Uchiha Sasuke wore when he killed Danzou, when he fought the Kazekage, when he fought Killer B…

…When he killed his brother, Uchiha Itachi.

Sasuke froze as the imposter smirked. He glared at him, activating his own mangekyou sharingan. "Who are you?" he hissed.

The imposter burst into laughter. "Who am I?" he said. "Oh **I** know who **I** am. Do **you** know who **you** are?"

"I am Uchiha Sasuke," Sasuke answered.

"Are you..?" the imposter asked as he stepped closer to Sasuke.

Sasuke reached for his katana.

The imposter raised his hands. "Really?" he asked, ignoring Sasuke's defensive stance. "You will wield that against me? And you say you're Uchiha Sasuke? Preposterous..!"

Sasuke stared confused at the imposter.

What was he saying?

"Why do you want to kill me?" the imposter asked smiling at Sasuke as he closed the distance between them. "I might kill you? I'm a threat to you?"

Sasuke couldn't move. It was as if the imposter had locked him there with some sort of genjutsu! He couldn't understand what was happening though. He had his sharingan on! He should be able to-

"Do you want to kill me because you don't like what you see in me?" the imposter whispered against Sasuke's ear.

Sasuke felt baffled.

The imposter stared down at Sasuke. "You don't want me anymore?" he asked. "After all the times we spent together, you realize they are all things that you want to forget." He looked up at Sasuke again. "That they are all something you regret."

Memories flashed into Sasuke's memories – his escape from Konoha, his training sessions with Orochimaru, how he murdered him afterwards, his fight with the Kage's, his fight with several other ninjas, his times with Madara Uchiha, his new team, Danzo's death, Itachi's death, his battles with Naruto-

"Thank you," he heard himself say as a memory of Sakura from a long time ago flashed into his mind.

"Don't worry," the imposter said. "I understand. I'm still here. And you will come back to me." He walked away, passing Sasuke.

Sasuke found himself looking down at his clothes. He was wearing the kimono he wore in his current mission with Sakura.

Only it was…There was a stain on his clothes – a morbid red stain that grew to look like blood splatters.

He lifted his hands and found it drenched with blood.

Sasuke stiffened.

Whose blood was it? Itachi's..?

He noticed a trail of blood on his feet. He realized that he was no longer in the Uchiha compound.

He was in the snowy woods around the decrepit house he and Sakura lived in.

Sasuke followed the trail of blood on the white snow – his heart pounding anxiously against his chest.

At the very end of the trail was, as Sasuke expected, a bloody body – a corpse with his own katana plunged deep into its torso.

Sasuke gasped in shock as he noticed the color of the ruffled short hair on its head – a pale shade of pink.


	36. Chapter 36

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing "Scroll."_

**Reignashii**_, why are you so great at this? I guess I can't hide that much things from you, huh? _^ v ^

_It's alright, _**fragmentofice**_, you're not the only confused about Houren. But like I've always said, it will all be revealed in the next chapters. _^ v ^_ I hoping to start the "reveal" in Chapter 37 - **hoping**_

_Anyway, here's this week's chapter. So far, I'm keeping up with my usual update schedule. Do tell me what you think about this chapter. _^ v ^

* * *

><p>He quickly knelt down the corpse and held it in his arms.<p>

It couldn't be Sakura…IT JUST COULDN'T! He was just holding her a few moments ago...

Or was he?

He pulled out his katana from the corpse's torso. Blood spilled out from the wound. It spread into the cloth of her kimono, turning it's shade of beige turn scarlet.

Sasuke brushed the pale pink hair against the corpse's face.

He froze.

It was Sakura. Her eyes were shut. Blood flowed down from her forehead, from her nostrils, and from the ends of her purple lips.

She was extremely cold. Her chest wasn't moving.

The numbing, stinging sensation slowly crept up his veins. The usual hole in his chest was filled by a huge lump that blocked his lungs from taking in enough air.

His vision blurred. He heard sobs…hiccups…grieving sounds echoing in the wind.

Sasuke furiously shook his head, hoping that would break whatever illusion or spell he was in.

But when he opened his eyes, Sakura's lifeless face was still there in his arms.

"N-no," he gasped. "No, you're not..! I'm getting the flower…WE'RE GOING HOME! Please…please wake up…Wake up! SAKURA!"

But she remained still…unmoving…dead.

* * *

><p>Sasuke gasped and jolted up from the futon.<p>

His eyes were wide in alarm as it took in the darkness o f the living room.

He was still gasping for breath. Beads of sweat slid down his forehead. His chest was throbbing.

Sasuke rubbed his hands on his face.

They had lunch. Sakura felt sleepy so he carried her to the bedroom and watched her fall asleep. He then went out of the room and washed the dishes. After that, he read a few of Sakura's notes but found the information from it too pointless, with his head spinning and confused on what to do about everything around him. So he sat down on the floor afterwards to clear his head.

Sasuke sighed and fixed his eyes on the front door. He locked it before he sat down to think about things.

Sakura would die if she left the village. Heck! She would die if she tried to walk too far from the house!

Sasuke needed that one time alone to digest everything that was going on around him.

There was still so much to know, but understanding the facts that were already on his lap was difficult enough for him to do. Confirming that Sakura was dying, that she had **that** many gruesome wounds, that there might or might not be any way to keep her alive, that the scroll was a record of her slow death, that the scroll wasn't written to save her life but to prevent other people from suffering the same fate she was having, that the possible cure for Sakura was a mythical flower that may or may not exist-

…that there was a great possibility that he would never see Sakura in Konoha again…that he will never have a mission with her; that he will never catch a glimpse of her in the hospital; that he will never see the smile she always wore for him; that Naruto's dream of their team being complete…would most likely never happen.

All those thoughts rushed into his consciousness. He must have fallen asleep while he was trying to sort everything out.

Sasuke sighed and ruffled his hair.

His mission was to get the scroll and take it to Konoha.

Sakura gave him the permission to execute his mission.

If he executed his mission, he would no longer be under probation. He would be able to live normally in Konoha. No more Anbu ninjas looking over his shoulders. No more stupid low-level missions. No more guards. No more-No more…

…No more Sakura.

The image of the bloody pink-haired corpse in his arms rushed into his consciousness.

Sasuke shook his head.

If he left with the scroll, he would leave Sakura alone in the house. The traps he set up might hold, but what if the enemy had destroyed them all? Sakura would be defenseless!

Sasuke glared at the floor.

But he could have the Hokage make a cure for Sakura. Then Tsunade would have Konoha ninjas delivering the cure to Sakura. He would even volunteer to administer the medicine.

That was it! He would take the scroll and have a cure–

But how long would it take for the hokage to make the cure? How long did Sakura have? If no one tried to kill her, how long would it take for the illness to take her life?

Sasuke shut his eyes.

He tried to remember what he read from her notes earlier. He recalled the descriptions for each stage of the illness…how many days the patients had before they–

So far, as long as she hadn't exhibited symptoms of internal hemorrhage, she had a long way to go.

But Kaitaro told him that saying how many days or months a sick person had left was pointless. Even if a doctor said the patient would last for a month, the patient could either still live more than a month or end up dead in less than a month.

If there was really nothing else they could do to save the patient…to Sakura…

Sasuke opened his eyes.

…The flower. The doctor gave him directions on how to find the flower. He would get it. He would get the cure and he would go back to Konoha with Sakura.

But what if it really **was** just a mythical flower – it didn't exist? He would only be wasting time. If he left for Konoha with the scroll tomorrow morning, the hokage would be able to start working on a cure!

Should he start packing then? Why was he even thinking about Sakura's fate? She obviously wanted to die in the village!

Sasuke felt his chest throb.

And she was right – she was just another ninja he had to put up with while he was on his mission. He shouldn't care about her – not anymore!

Sasuke took a deep breath and sighed. A lump was forming in his throat.

It might be time for dinner. He should start preparing something to eat.

He forced himself to stand up. He was on his way to the ash-filled hearth when he heard something. …Gasps…Coughing…Gagging…from the bathroom..?

Sasuke quickly grabbed a lamp from the kitchen and lit it. He rushed to the path that he remembered led to the bathroom near the bedroom.

The coughing sound became louder the nearer to the bathroom he went.

He passed by the bedroom, fearing but knowing it was empty.

The bathroom door was open. Sakura was on her knees – her head limply hanging from the edge of the toilet seat.

Sasuke swiftly set the lamp down on a corner and held Sakura away from the toilet bowl.

"Sakura!" he called, seeing she only seemed half-awake. He brushed the tangled strands of pale pink hair away from her face and froze.

A trail of blood ran down from her nose. There were blood stains on her pale lips as well.

…Chills slinked into his veins – chills that burned his insides like tiny but destructive sparks of electricty.

She resembled the corpse he held in his nightmare.

He frantically held her cheek. It was still warm. Her chest was heaving for air. She was still alive!

...But she was bleeding.

She shivered and began to choke.

Sasuke held her closer. "Sakura!"

Sakura shook her head and leaned away. She hung her head on the toilet seat – vomiting blood.

Sasuke froze.

The inside of the toilet seat was filled with red liquid.

Sakura coughed and gagged. Her shaky arms tried to keep her limp body from sinking her head into the inside of the toilet bowl.

Sasuke furiously shook his head.

It wasn't the time to be shocked!

He quickly held Sakura again but this time, he supported her weight to keep her from slamming her face on the porcelain toilet seat.

"It's okay," he whispered into her hair. "I'm here. You're going to be okay. I'm here now, Sakura."

The scent of rust and bile slowly seeped into his senses.

He held her tighter, as if letting her go would mean losing her forever.

* * *

><p>Sasuke didn't know how long it lasted.<p>

He was too busy brushing her hair away from her sweaty face and whispering comforting words against her ear to wonder about how much time she had spent vomiting blood into the toilet bowl.

All he knew was that Sakura began wailing like a wounded child after a while. She called his name so many times, told him she couldn't take it anymore. She complained about feeling an intense pain in her chest and abdomen.

"Kill me," were the words she whispered constantly - her pale green eyes begging him to end the pain.

It crushed him, just as much as seeing her dead did. The numbing feeling filled his body, changing into unbearable, indescribable pain. The forming lump blocked his throat. He felt like he was drowning.

He wanted to cry. But the tears in her pleading eyes told him it wasn't the time to crumble.

So he just shook his head, placed light kisses on her sweaty cheeks and forehead, and repeatedly whispered "No, it's going to be alright," "It's going to go away," "It will stop," and "You will be okay."

By the time it was over, Sakura was too weak to keep her eyes open. She was too limp to move a muscle, and too unconscious to notice that he was still there with her.

Sasuke stayed there on the cold bathroom floor cradling Sakura. He kept her head tucked into the crook of his neck – his cheek warming a cold side of her face. His chest listened to the jagged rhythm of her heart beat.

He sat there thinking about what he had to do next. His head told him he should take her to the bedroom. His body told him to make sure she was really feeling better before he did so. His heart told him to just keep her close – to never let her go.

Sasuke had to carry her back to the bedroom.

He froze when the light of the lamp touched the room. The blanket was strewn across the floor. There was a big blood splatter on the futon and a large smear of blood on the floor that led to the door.

Why didn't he notice it? He should have heard her move out to the door at least.

Sasuke laid Sakura on the clean blanket and under the dim light of the lamp noticed the blood stains on her kimono.

He took a deep breath and wiped the moisture forming in eyes.

He then cleaned the mess in the bedroom, prepared another futon and quilt for Sakura and laid her there. He also washed her face and carefully changed her clothes.

Luckily her wounds didn't bleed. Her bandages didn't need changing.

He then went to the bathroom to clean it. He began flushing the red liquid down the toilet bowl. It took about six buckets of ice cold water to clear the mess in the bowl. He then scrubbed the blood stained floor.

He cleaned the floor to the bedroom next, mopping and disinfecting the bloodstains. He wiped the smear of blood on the bedroom floor afterwards. He took the blood-stained futon out and examined the stain on it.

After a moment of contemplation, Sasuke figured the weather wouldn't dry the futon if he washed it. He lit up the hearth and threw the futon in the flames.

He then walked back into the bedroom to check on Sakura. She was too pale and cold for his liking. So covered her body with another quilt.

Sasuke limply walked out of the bedroom, suddenly feeling too tired to move. He slumped down on the living room floor, staring at the hearth that lit up the room.

He watched the flames change hues…dance with the chilly air…feel apathy towards his gloomy disposition.

A tear slid down his cheek.

Sasuke looked down on the floor and bit his lower lip.

Sobs echoed inside the glum wooden house.

The image of the bloody sword-striken corpse flashed constantly in his mind – the image of Sakura vomiting blood giving him an impression on how her body lost its life when his katana struck her torso.

He couldn't help but think about how Sakura was so much worse than when he first saw her after two years, how painful the ordeal earlier must have been for her, how she must have felt when she woke up coughing out blood-

…How Sakura was **really** dying.

Sasuke covered his face as he silently whimpered.

He killed her. In his dreams, his katana stabbed her. He watched her die. That imposter – the Uchiha Sasuke that brought fear and havoc in Konoha – killed her.

Sasuke killed her.

And if Sakura didn't stop vomiting on her own earlier, she would've died too. He would have lost her. He would have watched her die an excruciating death.

Sasuke wept. He cried like Sakura did when she complained about the throbbing in her abdomen…when she tried to describe the pain from the severe internal wounds she had that caused her to vomit blood...

He stared at the flames, his hands constantly wiping the tears from his eyes as he tried to calm himself.

It was like losing Itachi all over again. It was like losing his parents…his relatives…his love ones.

It was so painful that he could barely breathe. It was then that he wanted the numbness to come. He missed how hollow his chest felt when he was supposed to be sad or angry. He missed how it made getting over a negative emotion easy.

At that moment, he just wanted to be free from the unbearable pain.

Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes.

This changes everything. Sakura now was in the stage that he dreaded the most.

According to her notes, the patients of the illness died due to the complications the illness caused.

"Kill me," he heard her voice echo inside her head.

That was one other thing he had forgotten when he made his plan – many of the patients who reached the last stage of the illness committed suicide because of the excruciating pain they felt.

If he left for Konoha, how sure was he that he would still find Sakura there in his return? How sure was he that she wouldn't find a way to kill herself?

The doctor can't check on her all day. It would reveal her location. Houren would kill her, and Sasuke wouldn't be there to save her.

Sasuke angrily ruffled his hair.

What should he do? Finish his mission and forget about her? She didn't want him anymore anyway. She wanted that Anbu ninja.

Sasuke looked at the flames again.

Sakura didn't want him to care about her anymore. So why should he care about her?

Sasuke stiffened.

Why...should he care at all?

"Who am I?" the imposter's voice echoed inside his head. "Oh **I** know who **I** am. Do **you** know who **you** are?"

Something was terribly wrong with him. He knew it. He wanted it to be checked and cured but...the more he lived without the angst, the hatred, the wrath...the more he **lived**.

What should he do then? Fix what was wrong with him? Go to Konoha with the scroll? Leave her there to die, just as how the vengeful Uchiha Sasuke would do?

Find the Anrui flower? Find the cure? Do anything and everything to keep her alive?

* * *

><p>Houren raised a brow at the smiling blonde-haired reflection of himself.<p>

They stood across each other in the room made for the ruling village chief. It was the last time that the white-haired Houren would conduct peace talks with the blonde.

"You're not going to stop me?" Houren asked, looking confused at the smiling blonde Houren in front of him.

"Nope," Houren cheerfully answered. "There's nothing you can do about it anyway."

The white-haired Houren smirked. "Is that a dare?"

"A truth," Houren said. "I know you're planning to reach the Uchiha."

Houren just watched his blonde-haired reflection.

"He's not going to work that way though," Houren said. "It's his nature – hating everyone from Konoha, wanting them dead…killing Sakura."

"Hm," Houren said. "You are telling me this because..?"

"I'm telling you what will happen," Houren answered. "Sakura will burn at the stake for causing the illness. She will perish. And Uchiha will make sure that happens."

"This is quite a game you're playing," Houren said.

"And you're quite old to be playing it with me," Houren replied.

The white haired Houren sighed. "You are playing with people, not shogi pieces," he said. "You're putting your own life on the line."

The blonde Houren burst into laughter. "I'm immortal!"

Houren sighed and shook his head. It was no use. The blonde Houren was already out of his reach.

"I still stand by what I told you," Houren told the blonde.

Houren scoffed and turned away from him.

"You will die because of Sakura," Houren said as he watched the blonde walk away from the room. "...Because of me," he whispered.


	37. Chapter 37

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing "Scroll." Sorry, I'm late! _

**Reignashii**_, I am again in awe at your analysis of the story. _^ v ^

_Sorry, _**fragmentofice, **_turned out the whole revelation thing has to be published on the next chapter. * v * _But I'm glad you're not that confused anymore at the two Hourens.__

_And for the new readers, thank you all so much for taking the time to read this! _^ v ^ _I'm glad you like it!_

_Here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you all think about it. _^ v ^

* * *

><p>Sasuke watched Sakura's eyes flutter open.<p>

She was trying to stay awake.

It was dawn. Sasuke barely slept the whole night.

Whenever he closed his eyes he saw the corpse of his parents, the gloomy Uchiha compound, Itachi, Itachi's death in his hands, Madara's revalations about Konoha's hand on the Uchiha clan massacre, Danzou and his death, the great ninja war, his last attack on Naruto after they successfully defeated Madara, the blood-thirsty Uchiha Sasuke imposter taunting him about how much he knew himself…Sakura's blood-drenched corpse in his arms.

He decided to stay awake instead – writing about Sakura's state on the scroll, copying its contents in Sakura's small notebook, reading its contents about the illness, and watching over Sakura. It turned out to be a good idea since Sakura woke up two times that night to vomit blood.

One hour – that was how long each episode lasted. Sasuke had to wonder how she was still alive. It was as if a force was keeping her heart beating despite the malfunctions her heart was experiencing.

Her last illness attack had just finished. She was still conscious when he carried her to the bedroom.

"I've updated the scroll," Sasuke softly said.

Somehow her condition kept him from putting on his usual apathetic air.

He watched her pale green eyes shakily look up at him. She was trying to look at his eyes, at his nose, at his lips…Her vision was probably too blurry for her liking and she couldn't see him clearly.

Sasuke gently combed her hair away from her face using the tips of his fingers.

"I'm cooking soup," he said though he hadn't prepared anything yet. "You want to eat?"

Sakura slowly shook her head.

Sasuke expected it. But seeing her confirm it still pained him. Based on the pain she described in her abdomen, he knew her digestive track was damaged.

That was why he already prepared the IV dextrose for her.

"Clin-ic?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke shook his head. "I'm skipping clinic duty today," he said. "I'm going to look for the flower. I'll tell the doctor to check on you once in a while."

All the nightmares and the episodes Sakura had that night made him decide on what he wanted to do at that moment. The imposter in his dreams scared him - the imposter that reflected his past view of the world depressed him. And the image of Sakura dead in his arms made him think why he should live.

It meant only one thing - that he should move on with his life and that he should do everything to save Sakura.

Sasuke saw anxiety flash on Sakura's face.

His free hand held her limp and cold one.

"Wait for me," he said tightening his hold on her hand. "Stay alive enough to ingest the cure until I come back."

Sakura shook her head. Sasuke held her icy cheeks to stop her.

"I'll be back in no time," he said. "I'll find the cure. You'll be okay. You won't be in pain anymore, and we'll both go back to Konoha."

Sakura gazed at his face for a moment before she smiled and mouthed, "Thank you."

It somehow struck a chord inside him. Perhaps because 'thank you' was his last words to Sakura before he left her that night in Konoha.

He felt an excruciating pain surge into his chest. His vision blurred. He leaned his head closer to Sakura's.

But she closed her eyes before his lips touched her forehead - before tears fell on her forehead. She had been pulled back into the realm of sleep before she realized what Sasuke had done.

* * *

><p>"Are you joining the raid?" Daiki asked Kaitaro as he stood by the clinic door.<p>

Kaitaro stared confused at Daiki.

The sky was still glum and sleepy when Daiki knocked on the door.

"What raid?" Kaitaro asked.

Daiki sighed. "They haven't informed you yet then," he said. "Houren's scheduled a raid today to arrest Haruno Sakura."

Kaitaro's face turned grim.

"The village ingrates insisted they come," Daiki said. "More than half of the village is coming with us today. They're equipped with torches, rakes, and shovels."

Kaitaro glared at the window. "They'll pursue her like she's a monster," he said.

"That's how they see her," Daiki said. "They're ungrateful bastards after all. She saved their lives and they see what she did as an act of the devil."

Kaitaro thought for a moment. "What time will you begin?" he asked.

"Well we're going to search the whole woods up north," Daiki said. "We were instructed to check every stone and crevice so we'll need to start early this morning. They're forming groups in the square as we speak. We're just waiting for Houren to lead us out of the village. Is Sasuke-san here?"

Kaitaro shook his head. "I doubt he'll stay here today," he said.

Daiki nodded. "That's good," he said. "Can you tell him about what's going to happen though?"

"I can," Kaitaro said turning to look at Daiki.

"Well, that's it for me," he said, bowing down to Kaitaro. "If you decide to come with us, you know where to find us. I have a feeling we'll need a doctor in this expedition."

Kaitaro nodded and watched Daiki close the door behind him. He turned to look behind him and watched Houren glare at the floor.

His long white hair was in a cloudy shade of grey as he leaned against the wall of the clinic.

"I thought he was just planning to kill her," Kaitaro said.

"He thinks the people will enjoy watching a bon fire," Houren said, his face reflecting anger. "It will be a huge slap on their faces when they realize they chose the wrong side of the coin - when they realize that their only chance of salvation was murdered by their own hands."

Kaitaro winced. "When is he going to stop?"

"I doubt it's going to be anytime soon," Houren said as he leaned away from the wall. "I'll start making Uchiha's path to the Anrui flower."

Kaitaro nodded and watched Houren change vanish, leaving a gust of wind and snow.

"Doctor," he heard Sasuke's voice call from the other side of the backdoor of the clinic.

Kaitaro rushed to the door and opened it. "Sasuke-san," he greeted.

"I can't go on duty today," he said. "I'm going to look for the flower. Sakura is-"

"I know," Kaitaro said nodding. "It's alright. I'll take care of her."

"What's going on in the square?" Sasuke asked.

"A meeting," Kaitaro answered. "They're thinking of looking for Sakura in the woods."

Sasuke stiffened. "Which woods?"

"They'll start in the woods down south," Kaitaro said. "You **must** hurry and find the flower."

Sasuke nodded and vanished into the woods.

Kaitaro sighed. Now, he must decide if he would check on Sakura. To be in the woods alone while Houren's men were on alert would be perilous, not only for Kaitaro but also for Keiko and Sakura.

Kaitaro closed the door. He would have to trust Houren's plan.

Elders know better after all.

* * *

><p>Sasuke swiftly glided through the woods. He was leaping from tree branch to tree branch at great speeds.<p>

Sakura was in danger. But if he stayed with her he wouldn't be saving her at all. Kaitaro was right. He should find the flower and cure her first. The group was going to start searching the woods down south anyway. He would still have time to make her well enough to be moved away from the house.

"There is one part of the forest that first receives the early morning light," he remembered Kaitaro say when he asked him about how to find the flower. "The dark clouds in that part of the woods make a small hole for the morning ray of the sun to pass through – a sunbreak, they call it. It only lasts for a couple of minutes. After that, the light that hit the snowy floor will bounce up to the sky, softening them enough to let the morning light shine through them, giving us enough light to know that it's no longer night time. The spot where the light from the sunbreak touches the ground is where you will find the stone where the Anrui flower grows."

Sasuke kept heading east, his eyes sharply checking the dark sky for any signs of light.

"But the flower is guarded by the Snow Spirit," he remembered Kaitaro say. "People have searched for the flower with those directions. They found the sunbreak, but found nothing in the spot where the first morning light hit the ground. You will find the flower there only if the Snow Spirit sees you fit to see it."

"_How do I find the Snow Spirit and ask him permission to see it?" Sasuke asked. _

"_You will see him there," Kaitaro said. "When you see him, you will know him."_

Sasuke wondered what the Snow Spirit looked like. If you base his looks on the myth, he's a man with white hair. He would probably be an old man now – a hermit. Or a perverted one like Jiraiya.

Sasuke shook his head. He had to focus! Sakura's life was on the line.

He soon saw spark of light at the far end of the woods. He quickened his pace and reached the spot. He looked up at the dark grey clouds slowly twisting and turning…stretching to form a hole just as Kaitaro described.

Through it passed a thin ray of light.

Sasuke watched the light touch the patch of snow below the tree branch he stood on.

There was nothing there – just thick white snow.

Sasuke jumped down from the tree to take a closer look at the ground. He stood under the ray of the light. The spot was really empty.

Sasuke stepped back – his head spinning with thoughts of failure, defeat, loss...and Sakura's imminent death.

He shouldn't have looked for the flower. It didn't exist! He should have gone to Konoha and had the Hokage make Sakura a cure!

Sasuke cursed.

"Uchiha Sasuke," a familiar voice called from behind him.

He turned and froze.

In front of him stood Houren – his blonde hair in a shade of white. He wore layers of white kimono. His grey eyes looked calmly at him.

"You," Sasuke spat as he changed his stance into a defensive one.

"I know this may sound odd but I am not who you think I am," Houren said.

"Really?" Sasuke asked glaring coldly at him. "Who do I think you are exactly?"

"Village Chief, enemy," Houren said.

"No," Sasuke said.

Houren raised a brow at him. He froze when Sasuke vanished from where he stood. Sasuke re-appeared in a blink of an eye, right in front of Houren's face – a ball of lighting in his hand.

"MURDERER!" Sasuke yelled as he hurled the chidori into Houren's chest.

Houren gasped in shock as the lightning burned his skin.

Sasuke's eyes went wide as he watched Houren dissipate, leaving an explosion of wind and snow in his wake.

His enemy escaped.

Sasuke sharply looked around him – his blood red eyes scanning everything for illusions.

"You're barking at the wrong tree," he heard Houren say behind him.

Sasuke quickly turned, swiftly unsheathing his katana. He angrily swung his sword at Houren.

Houren leaped swiftly away from his attack, hurling six icicles at Sasuke when he tried to attack him again.

"It was you!" Sasuke yelled as he slashed the icicles to pieces.

"Yes, and you must listen to me!" Houren said, leaping away and landing on the side of a tree.

"Why should I?" Sasuke snapped, lightning engulfing his katana. He slashed Houren, cutting the hundred-year old tree he stood on in half.

Houren's body was cut in two. But his body changed into a dusts of snow, dancing furiously with the wind.

Sasuke quickly looked around him, black flames engulfing anything he saw.

"I told you! You're barking at the wrong tree!" Houren yelled as he stood up on a tree branch, far above the river of black flames that Sasuke made.

Sasuke glared at Houren as he landed on a tree branch. "You and your filthy lies," he spat as he raised his clenched hand up. He held another ball of raging lightning inside it.

Houren watched the grey clouds turn black…twist and turn to resemble a cyclone, devouring the sunbreak that shed the first morning light in the mountain.

Thunder roared angrily in the sky as sparks of lightning began to dance frantically above their heads.

Houren cursed.

Sakura wasn't kidding when she said you wouldn't want to be in Sasuke's bad side.

Houren watched the sparks of lightning touch the ball of lightning in Sasuke's hand. And from that contact, he saw something emerge from the dark clouds – a live dragon made of lightning.

Houren swallowed loudly.

His only chance of surviving the attack laid on the fact that the dragon used chakra.

"Dissipate in **this**," Sasuke furiously shouted. The dragon swiftly swooped down - his mouth wide open and ready to devour Houren.

Houren had to step back, shocked at the quick attack. But he spread his arms out and caught the dragon by the head.

Sasuke watched the dragon pass through Houren – its head vanishing into Houren's body, lightning sparks surrounding him like a shield.

Houren absorbed his Kirin.

The dragon vanished completely into Houren's body, leaving traces of electricity dancing around his glowing body. His white hair seemed more like rays of blinding white light.

It was then that Sasuke noticed how his grey eyes had already turned white...as white as snow.

Houren raised his hands up. A huge surge of lightning current flew up to the sky from his hands, causing blinding sparks of lightning to creep through the black clouds.

Sasuke stiffened. He looked up the sky and suddenly saw a surge of lighting head straight toward him.

He screamed, expecting the pain…but he only felt…stronger.

Sasuke fell down on his knee, shocked that as the lightning vanished, he felt no pain. He only felt energized.

He looked confused at Houren whose eyes were back to being grey.

What did he just do to him?

"Now will you listen to me?" Houren asked as the rumbling clouds above their heads slowly calmed down.

"Why should I listen to you?" Sasuke asked.

"Because Haruno Sakura listens to me," he said.

Sasuke scoffed. "You're killing her!"

"I told you, you're barking at the wrong tree!" Houren said. "I'm the **real** Houren!"

Sasuke stiffened.

…Real…Houren?

"I will tell you everything," Houren said. "…At least everything that I can tell you at this moment."

Sasuke glared at him.

How sure was he that this 'real' Houren could be trusted?

"You want to see the Anrui flower, don't you?" Houren asked.

Sasuke raised a brow at him.

"I can show you the Anrui flower," Houren said.

Sasuke stiffened.

"Just listen to me," Houren said. "That's all I ask – listen. I'll leave the believing part to you. Just listen to me, and please put this fire out before it burns the whole mountain to the ground."

"_You will see him there," Kaitaro said. "When you see him, you will know him."_

Sasuke stood up and looked at the black flames devouring the snowy ground.


	38. Chapter 38

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll' _^ v ^

_Here's this week's chapter! Tell me what you think about it _^ v *

* * *

><p>"First of all, l would like to tell you that you almost killed me back there," Houren said sighing.<p>

They stood in the snow covered ground now. Sasuke couldn't help but wonder how his amaterasu didn't seem to have burned anything in the woods. The snow didn't melt. The trees didn't turn to coal.

It was just as if nothing happened.

"If Sakura didn't tell me about what you can do, I wouldn't have survived it," Houren said.

Sasuke glared at him. "Who **are** you?" Why would Sakura tell him anything?

Houren looked at Sasuke for a moment. "They call me the Snow Spirit," he said. "But my name is Houren. And just to answer your unspoken question, we are standing on my holy ground. I can erase any damage you make in this part of the woods."

"Hn," Sasuke said looking at him more guardedly. "What makes you the **real** Houren?"

"Let me start with who I really am, shall we?" Houren said. "I come from a place that is far different from yours. And by that I mean I come from…a different…world. I know you're familiar with people who don't age, and people who don't die. Based on what Sakura told me, your own Hokage found a way to stop her body's aging process. And you've supposedly defeated an immortal."

Sasuke scoffed. At least this Houren knew how powerful Sasuke was. Well Naruto helped in defeating the "immortal" but the dobe wouldn't be able to defeat Madara without a significant help from Uchiha Sasuke.

"I myself am immortal," Houren said. "…By birth. I've stopped aging more than five centuries years ago."

Sasuke just stared at him. He's supposed to believe that? Sure he's powerful but to be immortal by birth? What is he? A deity..?

"A group of thieves plundered our temple a long time ago," Houren said. "They took several valuable artifacts and took them here, in your world. I was tasked to get those artifacts back. As my body is not accustomed to your world, I can only survive here for a limited period of time. To keep me alive, I was given an artifact that made it possible for me to stay here for thirty days. I spent those days searching for the culprits and retrieving 2 of the 7 artifacts that were stolen from our temple."

Sasuke crossed his arms. Should he believe this lunatic?

"But I was devious," Houren said. "Seeing how different this world is from mine, seeing how powerful I become when I am in the midst of your people, I sought of a way to extend my stay here. I thought of leaving a part of me here that would live in the conditions of this land. I planted a seed here, on this very mountain, which was at that moment secluded from any human civilization. I left the seed here to see if it would live. I came back to see a maiden tending to that seed which had then become a bud – a small white flower."

Maiden…Is he telling him the real story of the Snow Spirit?

"The maiden seemed to have been tending to my seed since I left," Houren said, his grey eyes looking past Sasuke…to the image of the black haired maiden kneeling down and talking to the small bud on the hard stony ground. "An old drunkard had settled somewhere in the mountain. She lived with him as his slave. Every night, he would force her to pleasure him. And every night, she would find a way to escape him. She would spend the night next to the bud. When she went back to their house the next morning, the old man angrily gave her a beating."

Sasuke stared surprised at Houren. So the girl in the story didn't live in the mountain with her father like what Keiko told him.

"The old man went down the village at the foot of this mountain every morning to drink, and came back every night to force her to submit herself to him," Houren said. He remembered spying on the man – hearing the old man curse and blabber about how he took the maiden from her family as a payment for what her family owed him. The drunkard wanted the maiden as his wife. "I owed the maiden for caring for my plant. So I watched over her. I revealed myself to her one day while she was watering the bud. She was…very aloof," Houren said smiling at the image of a scowling lady standing defensively in front of him. "She didn't give me her name. I kept seeing her since then in that same spot – by the bud. We became friends."

Sasuke wanted to talk about another topic – a topic that involved saving Sakura's life. But he felt that the story was going to answer some of the questions he had about what was going on in the village.

"The thirty days ended," Houren said. "And I had to go back to my world. I told her I would come back to see her, and I was really planning to. With the bud growing, I knew I would be able to come back to see her and I would eventually be able to stay longer with her. Hours before I came back here, a group of men hunted her down. The old man gambled and lost. He gave his creditors the maiden as payment."

The men who pursued the maiden…who killed her…

"She put up quite a fight," Houren said recalling how bloody the maiden was when he cradled her in his arms. "It wasn't until one of the men hit her head with a rock that they had a chance to pin her down."

Sasuke watched Houren's face. His grey eyes were gazing at some distant memory.

He was telling the truth.

Did he kill the men?

"She was able to run to the bud before they caught her," Houren continued. "And with her own blood, she wrote down her name on the ground. I came in time to see one of them about to violate Keiko."

Sasuke's eyes widened. The name of the maiden was really Keiko?

Houren smirked. "That was the first time I took a life," he said. "And I ended up taking five. When I held her, she was nearly dead. And by nearly, I mean she still had a faint pulse – a very faint one that if ignored would immediately mean her death." He looked at Sasuke. "You see, like you and other ninjas, some people in my world understand the relationship of the physical body with energy or what you usually call, 'chakra.'"

Sasuke kept his eyes at Houren.

That was how Houren threw those icicles at him, how he evaded his attacks, how he vanished from his sight…

…How he absorbed the Kirin?

"Unlike you, however," Houren said. "As I've observed from you, Sakura, and your Anbu ninjas, I do not use the chakra inside my body to do what I want. I instead use the chakra of other things and beings around me to do my bidding."

"…_We, or rather a specific clan here that I unfortunately don't belong to, wield the chakra of everything around us. That's why when someone tries to find us using chakra signatures, they get nothing but the things around us – plants, trees, animals, insects…no humans."_

Sasuke stiffened.

"I am an expert in pulling someone else's chakra to be my own, just as I am an expert in pulling my own chakra out so it can be used by another person," Houren said watching Sasuke's minute expressions. He knew Sasuke had figured something out. "Keiko having a very faint pulse meant that she still had chakra left. But obviously it was too little to keep her alive for any treatment. So I pulled some of my chakra out of my body and fed it to her chakra to empower it. Once she had enough chakra to sustain a steady and regular pulse, I used my chakra to access the core of her chakra circulatory system.

She would eventually use up her remaining chakra so I made an invisible pathway between my chakra system and hers. So when her body needed chakra and her own chakra circulatory system was too weak to provide it, her body drew chakra from me. It worked even at a distance.

And it's irreversible. And for an ordinary human being, even for an ordinary ninja, this technique is fatal," Houren said.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. That was probably what happened earlier – Houren devoured the chakra from his Kirin, then he released the chakra from the lighting back in the sky and the chakra that Sasuke used back to Sasuke.

This Houren was powerfull. And he had a feeling this same technique had been used to conjure the illness.

"I am immortal," Houren said. "And that immortality is because time had long stopped the deterioration of everything in my body. It had also protected my cells from any harm, quickly reviving everything in my body in case it befalls any damage. This makes my body produce chakra easily.

So even when Keiko used my chakra to live the rest of her life it didn't harm me. Imagine though, if an ordinary human performed the technique. The person he or she would save would eventually gain enough chakra to sustain his or herself. But because the pathway can no longer be severed once it was made, the body of the person that was saved with the technique will still consume chakra from the one who performed the technique. He or she would be a parasite, and the person who performed the technique the host. The connection will not be cut until the host is dead."

The technique though interesting was undoubtedly a suicide.

"So she didn't die," Sasuke said. "What's that got to do with–"

"She lived, yes," Houren said. "And she bore me five sons and one daughter. The bud grew to become a flower bush that oddly grew on a boulder. As punishment for my deviance, for my extended stay in this world and for having a family of my own with humans, I was ordered to bring one of my descendants in every generation back to my world. That descendant will serve my people the way I should have while I stayed here. And that descendant was to spend the last of his days in that world. My family understood the condition. My third son, bearing the potential to perform my duties, was the first sacrifice I brought to my world. I stayed with him until he died. I paid a visit with my family here once in a while. And when I came back here to stay for good, my sons and daughter had grown to have their own families.

The house we built on this mountain gained a set of neighbors. And the group of neighboring houses grew to become a village. The descendants of my eldest son became the head family of the village. His last descendant is the Houren you met in the village."

Sasuke stared incredulously at the Houren in front of him.

The blonde Houren he met in the market, was a descendant of an immortal who looked like him?

"His name is Yoake," Houren continued. "He had blonde wavy hair, like his mother. But he didn't look like me before. It was his father, the previous chief of the village who made him look like me. His eldest son, even at a very early age, showed signs of being a prodigy. Afraid that I would choose him as my sacrifice – my 'heir' as the called it to whom I would teach everything I learned in exchange for taking him away from his family forever, the chief impregnated another woman who bore him Yoake.

Yoake and his mother were scorned by the village, since they believed his mother tempted the chief. In truth however, she was forced into bearing the chief's child. She was a good woman though. She cared for the child because it wasn't his fault that he was born. When Yoake reached the age of seven, the chief had him kept away from everyone including his mother. It drove her insane. She committed suicide a year later.

Yoake was forced to learn everything and anything they believed I was supposed to teach my heir. He read the journals of the previous heirs, constantly perfecting every technique that an heir performed. Though he was an exemplary learner, he was not enough to be my heir. He was full of hatred. And though I could not blame him, he was still unfit to take on the role.

When his father presented him to me, I told him my concern that heirs were chosen by me, and not by the village chief. My descendant ignored me. He forced Yoake to look like me, thinking it would convince me to take the child as my heir.

Yoake eventually changed his name to 'Houren,' hoping that I would take him under my wing. I wanted to, but not as my heir. I told him I want to take him in as my grandson. He thought it was an insult to his skills. He thought I was looking down on him, like his father and the villagers did.

He came upon one of the missing artifacts I was tasked to retrieve. It was from there that he learned the techniques that made him powerful enough to kill his own father."

Sasuke sighed. The Houren in the village **did** cause the illness. Somehow, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He knew the feeling – the disappointment, the pain, the need for vengeance.

But Yoake was including Sakura in his list of victims. And he wasn't going to let him kill her without a fight.

"The first strain of the illness was a basic chakra manipulation technique," Houren said. "By that I mean a basic step to manipulating another person's chakra. Yoake planted some of his chakra into the chakra circulatory system of many of the villagers by tapping their shoulders in greeting while he walked down the street, by brushing his hands with their own when he helped them carry heavy things, by holding the children while playing with them. He then activated the chakra he planted one evening.

He tested the technique with his father, activating the chakra he planted on him when he embraced him. The chakra he planted acted like a parasite, replacing the chakra of its host and devastating body functions until its host's death.

The only way to cure it was to use chakra to confine the parasitic chakra. And Sakura used the Anrui flower behind you to do that," Houren said.

Sasuke stiffened. Behind him..?

He slowly turned his head to see what was behind him.

He froze.

Behind him was a boulder with a wilting bush. The bush had only one white flower on it – a small white lily-like flower that had the ends of its petals in a shade of brown.


	39. Chapter 39

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing "Scroll" and for being patient with me _^ v ^

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><p>Kaitaro patted Keiko's head.<p>

He was leaving her in Choko's care. To convince his daughter to stay there, he told her she was going to work for Choko as Haru-chan's babysitter.

"Will you be away long, Otou-san?" Keiko asked – her wide brown eyes looking up at Kaitaro.

"I don't plan to," Kaitaro answered smiling at Keiko. "But if I do take too long, wait for me okay?"

Keiko smiled and nodded. "Okay," she said.

Kaitaro bid goodbye to Choko, bowing in gratitude for taking Keiko under her wing for the day. He then turned to walk to the gate.

"Otou-san!" Keiko called out.

"Yes, dear?" Kaitaro asked.

"Will you be seeing Onee-chan?" Keiko asked.

Kaitaro stiffened and tried to keep a smile on his face. "I'm not sure," he said.

Keiko nodded. "If you see her, can you take her to our home?" she asked. "I don't think staying out there in the woods is still good for her."

Kaitaro nodded. "I'll see what I can do," he said.

But he was sure he was going to see Sakura later, and hopefully she would still be alive.

* * *

><p>Sasuke knelt down in front of the flower.<p>

"That flower is only good for making shields and illusions," Houren said. "It's the flower's tears that cured the first strain of the illness."

Sasuke stared at the flower. It was limp and wilting.

...Shields and illusions…

Sasuke turned to look at Houren. "The barrier," he said.

"Is my doing, yes," Houren said.

"You attacked me," Sasuke said glaring at Houren.

"I was hiding you," Houren said. "If those ninjas saw you there, they would know where Sakura is."

Sasuke stared confused at Houren. "You were protecting her?"

Houren shrugged his shoulders. "She impressed me," he said. "She risked her own life to save people she didn't know. Your Anbu ninjas did the same."

"You know the others too," Sasuke said.

"Jirotaiku and the others," Houren said. "Yes. They were good people, though Jirotaiku was a bit rough on the edges, he was kind too. None of them deserved their fate."

Sasuke froze.

If Sakura used the flower to cure the first strain of the illness, that meant she…She **lied** to him. They found the flower. She knew it wasn't a myth.

"You showed the flower to-"

"Sakura," Houren answered. "I showed it to her. Jirotaiku assisted her in gathering what they needed from the flower to make the cure."

Jirotaiku found the flower after all. He found it before Sasuke did.

But why would Sakura **lie **to him again? What else didn't he know about her?

"Sakura ordered Jirotaiku to pick Anrui flowers to set up barriers in the village," Houren said. "You see, the Anrui flower produces its own chakra. It takes a small amount of chakra from everything around it and produces its own to live. It's like a parasite. But if you cut the flower away from the bush, the chakra it produces is locked inside it. It circulates throughout the flower – constantly being consumed, produced, and renewed. It's good for sustaining chakra-based techniques.

At the time, arson was frequent in the village. Sakura had a feeling that the arson targeted specific groups of people. So she ordered Jirotaiku to gather Anrui flowers to make shields in the hospital."

Sasuke raised his brows at Houren.

The hospital…The fire that Kaitaro told him was true! But Sakura…Did she get stuck in the fire like Kaitaro said?

"She had the flowers kept in the wards and in the intensive care units," Houren said. "So when the fire hit the hospital, they were able to save all of the patients inside it."

But if there were shields inside the hospital rooms, how did the hospital get burned down to the ground?

"Can the shields withstand flames?" Sasuke asked.

Houren smirked. "It can," he said. "But the flames that consumed the hospital…the flames that burned down houses and killed many illness-infected villagers, were not just flames."

Sasuke raised his brow at Houren.

"They consumed chakra," Houren said looking straight into Sasuke's dark eyes.

Sasuke stiffened. Flames that consumed chakra…

"The flames consumed the chakra from the flowers that sustained the shields," Houren said. "The flowers were drained of their chakra. They all wilted and burned."

* * *

><p>Houren stood in the woods – soldiers and villagers standing behind him and looking around at the woods.<p>

He glared at the trees in front of him.

He could sense the chakra clones he marked the trees with.

The barrier was still up.

"I know this is a bad time but," Akio whispered as he stood behind him. "It's like we're just running around in circles."

"That's because the barrier is still up," Houren said.

"What do we do now?" Akio asked.

Houren smirked. "We pull it down," he said as he fixed his eyes on one of the trees far ahead of him. He pointed out at the direction of the tree. "Is that smoke I see?" he asked loudly, taking everyone's attention to the path in front of him.

From the tree he laid eyes on ignited a small flame, consuming the tree bark and producing smoke.

Houren immediately felt some of his chakra clones vanish…then come back again.

"Yeah! That's smoke!" a villager yelled.

"That must be her!" called another. "She's threatening to burn the woods with us inside it!"

"She's trying to escape us! Let's stop her!" cried another.

Houren smirked.

What would the little sickly cherry blossom do now?

* * *

><p>Sasuke turned to the flower again. "Sakura needs the cure," he said.<p>

"She has the second strain of the illness," Houren said grimly. "Do you know the difference between the first strain of the illness and the second one? How the second strain is more fatal than the other?"

Would it matter? It would. It would help Sasuke make the cure for Sakua using the Anrui flower.

Perhaps if he knew how the new strain worked, he could devise a way to use the Anrui flower to make a cure…even though…it was…wilting..?

"When Sakura found out that the first strain could be stopped by suppressing the parasitic chakra using the chakra from the Anrui flower," Houren began. "She also developed an oral vaccine."

Sasuke knew that. He read it in the journal. The pill that he took before he walked out of Konoha was-

"She made it from the chakra of the Anrui flower," Houren said. "As I have told you, the Anrui flower plant lives like a parasite, because its roots and leaves in particular take chakra from its environment and turns it as its own. Like other plants however, the plant creates a by-product or in the particular case of the Anrui plant – excess chakra. This excess chakra is released as small balls of light – tears made of pure chakra that slide down the petals of the Anrui flower.

Those tears cause changes in the environment. One primary effect it gives is weather change. Snow storms to be exact," Houren said.

Sasuke stiffened.

The story that Keiko told him…the Snow Spirit's tears filled the mountain with snow… The snowstorms that concealed Sakura's house...

"It was these small balls of chakra that Sakura used to make the cure," Houren said. "She had the chakra distributed into each patient's chakra circulatory system, and made it restrain the foreign chakra placed there by Yoake. Unfortunately, it couldn't get rid of Yoake's chakra. It only trapped it. But it was enough to save the patients from the illness.

Sakura then made an oral vaccine out of the chakra – a pill that supposedly mixed the Anrui flower's chakra into the chakra circulatory system of whoever drank it. She made the chakra involuntarily form a barrier that kept away any form of foreign energy that could harm the body."

Sasuke knew about that. The pill that he took before he left the Hokage's office-

…The icy taste of the pill…the snow storm the chakra caused…

Sasuke stiffened.

He had an Anrui flower chakra inside him then.

"Yoake learned about it," Houren said. "He was furious at what she did. So before she could give the pill to everyone in the village, he made another strain – a strain that this time turned a person's own chakra against a person's own body."

Sasuke froze.

That was why when Kei, Keiko's mother took the cure Sakura made, it didn't do anything to the second strain of the illness.

"Again, the chakra in the cure was made to suppress a foreign chakra," Houren said. "Since the chakra killing the body in the second strain was the patient's own chakra, the cure couldn't suppress it."

Sakura…That was what was happening to Sakura…

"But how?" Sasuke snapped. "How did it infect her? She drank the pill, didn't she? They drank the vaccine! The chakra in the pill could have stopped Yoake's chakra from infecting her chakra!"

Houren smiled sadly. "Many villagers drank the pill," he said. "…But not the Anbu ninjas…Not the doctors. Sakura couldn't make that many pills with all the chakra she had already used up in curing the villagers.

The doctors, the Anbu ninjas and Sakura all decided not to take the pills. Jirotaiku managed to save one pill though. He wanted Sakura to take it, knowing Yoake had his eyes set on her. But when he gave it to Sakura, she just hid it away. I heard she was planning to make more pills out of it that she could give to the Anbu ninjas. But Yoake paid her a visit, and the pill ended up lost and untouched."

Sasuke felt his body grow limp.

The pill…that could have saved her from the second strain of the illness…that could have made her healthy enough to return to Konoha with Jirotaiku when the Konoha rescue team arrived…

…Was the pill he consumed?

"How…How then can I save her?" Sasuke asked, his hands shaking in anxiety. He turned to the flower again. The tips of the flower petals were slowly turning brown as if…as if it was being burned. "The Anrui flower," he said. "The flower can still save her, right? There's still a way to form something from this flower! …Something that can save her!"

Houren's eyes saddened.

"Sasuke," Houren began. "Death is the only thing that can save Sakura."

* * *

><p>Sakura coughed out blood.<p>

She lay slumped on the toilet bowl again. Luckily, she woke up strong enough to rip the dextrose tube away from her arm and run to the bathroom.

Sakura heaved for air. She could taste the blood in the air.

Tears streamed down her cheeks. She could feel the sting in her arm, the soreness in her insides, the chill of the bathroom floor…

She wanted it to end. She wanted everything to end.

Sakura looked at the wound that ripping the dextrose tube made. It was just a long line running down the space between her two fingers, but it was bleeding profusely.

Sakura whimpered.

She felt useless…helpless…dying.

Sasuke would have to clean up her mess again. Unless…unless…he wouldn't have to do it again…unless there wouldn't be any mess to clean up from then on…

Sakura stopped herself from crying. She looked out at the open bathroom door...the empty hall beyond it...the glipse of her small table in the living room...

She could feel the chakra around the house flicker.

It was going to happen on that day, wasn't it?


	40. Chapter 40

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing "Scroll." _^ v ^

_I'm glad those chapters with Houren cleared a lot of the things you all were confused about in the story. _

_Here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you think about it! _^ v ^

* * *

><p>Sasuke swiftly leaped from one tree branch to another, his eyes fixed at the imperceptible path that he knew led back to the house he had stayed in for the past several weeks –back to the house where he learned about an illness that he didn't think could exist…back to the house where he did things he didn't thing he would do…<p>

…Back to Sakura.

His last conversation with Houren before he left the Snow Spirit's sacred ground, rang in his ears as he hurriedly leaped to another branch.

"You have to leave!" he remembered Houren yell frantically at him. "…NOW! He's eating up the barrier!"

"W-What..?"

"After a group of Konoha ninjas took Jirotaiku back to your village and Sakura was left in the forest, I set up the barrier in the woods to keep Yoake from finding her," Houren explained rigidly, trying hard keep himself calm enough to tell Sasuke what he needed to know. "That flower in front of you is sustaining the barrier as we speak. But Yoake, learning about the Anrui flower's ability to sustain barriers because of the artifact he found, found a way to disable the barrier. He planted small clones of his own chakra on the trees in the forest. Those clones acted like parasites. They sucked chakra from its surroundings like the Anrui flower. But once the chakra found a cloud of energy it could sustain itself from, it focuses on eating up the chakra from that particular host.

The barrier I made was supposed to make both an illusion and a threshold. As an illusion, it mimicked the forest that surrounded it. So when you are outside the barrier, you can't see the shield or the forest beyond it. And as a threshold, it served two purposes – one, send whoever dared to pass the barrier to another part of the forest that was outside the barrier; and second, let certain people pass through it and into the part of the forest that it hides.

The chakra Yoake placed in the trees surrounding the barrier is eating up the chakra produced by the Anrui flower to sustain the barrier. That's why that flower is wilting."

Sasuke remembered how the white petals of the only surviving Anrui flower at that moment had slowly turned into a light shade of brown.

"The flower is wilting at a much faster pace now," Houren said anxiously, eyes fixed grimly on the flower. "That means Yoake is doing something else in the woods this very minute. You **have **to get back to Sakura before the barrier falls completely and Yoake finds her!"

Sasuke cursed.

Kaitaro said the villagers were going to raid the forest that day! Houren, or rather Yoake, must be there with the villagers!

But the doctor said they were going to start with the south end of the forest, not the north where Sakura was. If the doctor told him that the raid would start up north, he would have gone back to Sakura instead of going after the Anrui flower.

Unless..!

* * *

><p>Houren waved his arm to stop Akio from walking further into the woods. The people behind them were busy putting out the flames that they thought were made by Sakura in an attempt to scare them away.<p>

"What is it?" Akio asked Houren.

They had been walking for an hour and half when Houren noticed something ahead of them.

"Uchiha Sasuke is a ninja," Houren told Akio – his eyes fixed on the woods ahead of them.

"Yes," Akio replied.

"Do you think he would leave Sakura unguarded?" Houren asked.

Akio looked out at the woods. "Traps," he said. "Do you see how many of them are here?"

"No," Houren said. "It wouldn't be of much use if you destroy all of them now anyway."

Akio smiled and nodded at Houren. The black pupils of his eyes swiftly devoured the whites.

He looked out at the woods and spread his arms wide.

Houren watched a massive puff of smoke emerge in the forest in front of them. It slowly devoured the trees and sure enough, he heard several explosions and crashing sounds within the smoke.

* * *

><p>Sakura lay breathless and gasping on the floor.<p>

She crawled out the toilet to secure the scroll. But she could barely reach her table.

Every wound and scar in her body had begun to ache. And her insides were twisting in excruciating ways.

Sakura coughed out blood again, for the nth time that day. She had stained the floor with so much blood, not that it would matter since the house was going to be burned up in flames.

She struggled to move her shaking arms, push her weak tender body away from part of the icy floor where she was splayed on, to reach her table.

…Just a little bit closer…Just a little close enough to reach her hand out and pull the journal…

Sakura yelled out in pain. It was like a huge hand had squished her insides, her chest, her heart, and her lungs...Like hundreds of knives deeply scraped her skin.

Tears were streaming down her cheeks.

It felt so painful…so much more painful than before. It was then that she realized why the ill doctors slit their wrists, why the patients with the second strain of the illness chose to stab their chests with a knife, and why Kei asked to drink a cup of the deadliest poison Sakura could make.

Death seemed so much better than living with that much pain.

Sakura winced and inched her body closer to the table.

She could barely see anything now, partly because of the tears in her eyes and partly because her own vision was waning.

She was suffering more pain than the victims of the second strain did, and Sakura thought it was only right, what with all the things she had done to Sasuke.

…Sasuke. He would look for the scroll, or he would look for her thinking she would secure the scroll…And she **will **secure the scroll.

Getting him back to Konoha as a free citizen was the only way she could make up for everything she did. And she will make sure she doesn't fail there.

Sakura reached out her hand, seeing a faint image of what was underneath her table.

Wincing and trying hard to ignore the pain coursing through her veins, she heard explosions echo in the woods.

Sakura gasped, fear devouring her.

He was near…**So** near…

Would he let her talk? Would he face her? Would he take take the scroll away first?

Or would he just kill her?

Sakura looked at the blurry table again and reached out her hand. She patted the surface she touched, seeking the texture of the small journal Jirotaiku gave her when she started writing apology letters to Sasuke two years ago.

* * *

><p>Kaitaro watched the smoke slowly subside.<p>

Daiki stood beside him as the other villagers stared shocked and confused at the explosion in the woods.

Kaitaro's face turned grim.

Houren had found the house.

"What now..?" Daiki whispered to Kaitaro.

"We follow him," Kaitaro answered. "I'm afraid there's nothing else that we can do at the moment."

Houren began to walk forward, eyes sharp as the smoke faded away.

Akio stood defensively behind him, waiting for any more traps or any enemy who might attack them.

Houren smirked as the space cleared.

Beyond the rows of trees was the house – the house where Kaitaro and his wife once lived; the house that he and his wife abandoned when the plague hit; and the house where Houren was sure Sakura lay hidden for the past months.

From the roof of the house, Houren saw smoke rising up to the sky – someone was home and he knew who it was.

* * *

><p>Sakura felt the familiar cover of the journal on the table and quickly snatched it away. She slipped it inside her kimono, against the blood-stained bandage on her chest.<p>

The blood should keep it wet enough to not get burned. And hopefully, whole enough until Sasuke came back to retrieve the scroll.

Sakura gasped as the flames of the hearth exploded. She stared shocked and frightened at the fire as it stretched upward and touched the ceiling. It branched out, creeping at the ceiling and quickly devouring the structures in its path.

Images of the hospital fire flashed in her mind as the flames crept down the walls and slinked stealthily on the floor.

She found herself whispering Jirotaiku's name...Hoping he was there...Hoping any of the dead Anbu ninjas was there...

...Hoping Sasuke would come to take her away...

Smoke quickly flooded the insides of the house. Sakura began to cough furiously again. This time, her lungs seemed like it wanted to fall out of her throat.

The pain in her body that she had been feeling, greatly intensified. She slumped down on the floor, vomiting more blood on the floor. Every minute movement of her muscles stung her, even the struggling beat of her heart.

She wanted nothing but death.

* * *

><p>Kaitaro and the villagers stood shocked at the scene in front of them.<p>

A house…**the house** where Sakura supposedly was living in, was in flames.

Daiki cursed. "Doctor," he muttered anxiously knowing Sakura could still be inside.

Kaitaro ran to Houren who was in front of the group.

"My lord, someone could still be inside that house!" Kaitaro shouted. "Sakura or not, whoever could be in there still needs our help! Can't we check if someone is there?"

Houren looked sadly at Kaitaro, knowing that the crowd was watching them. "The flames are too wild," he said. "It's dangerous. But I understand your concern." He then turned to his soldiers and to the other villagers. "Will there be any of you here who will volunteer to check the house for any civilians?"

Kaitaro looked at the soldiers.

None of them wanted to volunteer.

Daiki was about to raise his hand when someone landed on the ground in front of the house.

Everyone stared shocked at the doctor's assistant, Sasuke, suddenly breathlessly kneeling down on the ground.

The house seemed more like a giant bon fire now.

"We don't have enough water to put it out," Daiki said, suddenly standing beside him. "Is someone there?"

Kaitaro ran to Sasuke's side as well.

"They're not going to give us a hand," he whispered to Sasuke. When Sasuke didn't respond, he looked at him and saw that Sasuke's eyes were red.

He stepped back, shocked at how frightening Sasuke suddenly seemed.

The Uchiha was **furious**.

"What the-" Kaitaro heard Daiki say.

He looked up at Daiki, confused at his sudden outburst, and saw him staring mouth wide open at the burning house.

Kaitaro turned to the look at the house and froze. He looked down at the ground to ask Sasuke what was going on, but he was gone.

"What the hell is that..?" Akio cried out as the crowd behind them gasped in awe.

Houren's eyes narrowed at the black flames devouring the amber ones.


	41. Chapter 41

_Thanks you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll'! _^ v ^

_That's nice of you to notice, _**Nonny** ^ v * _We'll see if the blood will do anything on the journal. I'm afraid we won't be able to see it on this week's chapter though. _

_Okay, so a lot of the reviewers are begging me to let Sakura live. I don't really think it would be good for the story if I tell you whether Sakura is dying or not in this fanfic. So sorry! _^ v ^_ But we all just have to wait for what happens. _

_One review slightly hit my plan on the story though. _^ v * _And I am not telling you which review or in which chapter that review could be found. _

_Anyway, here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you think about it! _^ v ^

* * *

><p>Sakura found herself in an inferno – heat scorching her skin, smoke searing her lungs, and bright flames blinding her vision.<p>

"Sakura!" she heard Izuki's voice call from nowhere.

She coughed, throwing up more blood on the boiling floor.

"Izu-" she tried to utter but her throat had painfully dried up. She coughed again, her air passages bleeding with every breath she made.

"You need to leave," Kaitaro cried, tightly gripping Sakura's arm. "He's completely turned them against you!"

"What!" Izuki asked sitting up from the gourney.

"Don't!" Sakura said, pushing Izuki back down on his shoulders. "You'll feel worse."

Izuki coughed loudly, his shoulders shaking and his face reflecting the pain that his lungs were giving him. "I'll f-feel worse if I d-don't g-get any explanation!" he snapped.

"We know what you mean," Gaita said calmly as he sat breathing heavily on the gourney next to Izuki's. "Doctor, please calm down and tell us what's going on," he told Kaitaro.

Kaitaro nodded.

Jirotaiku folded his arms over his chest as he stood against the wall next to Mito, who was seated on a bench in the clinic.

"Yoake," Kaitaro said anxiously. "He convinced the people that you conjured the second strain of the illness from the plague. He didn't say it outright but he led them all to believe it was true. "

"Why would the villagers believe this?" Mito asked - his voice weak and husky. His free hand held a wet towel over his red feverish forehead.

"He made this theory," Kaitaro began. "…That the doctors, including my wife, learned about how you made the plague so you killed them..."

Sakura's face turned grim. "We tried to hide that fact so we made it look like they got sick too," she said following the line of thought.

Kaitaro nodded.

"Preposterous!" Izuki shouted. "And then what..? We inflicted ourselves with the same illness? THAT'S JUST IDIOTIC!" He then held his throbbing head.

Sakura held his shoulders to keep him from falling over.

Gaita sighed. "What matters now is that they believed Yoake," he said. He coughed out loudly before he wearily turned to Kaitaro. "What are they planning to do?"

"They're planning to arrest you," Kaitaro said. "…All of you. Yoake is proposing a trial for all of you, but the people he's fooled are calling for your execution. They're planning to raid the house tonight."

"Well doesn't that just make you wish we just left all of them to die from that plague?" Jirotaiku asked – eyes apathetic at Kaitaro.

"They don't know what's really going on," Sakura defended.

"Then let's tell them," Mito said. "Can't we tell them?"

Gaita shook his head. "I don't think it would be that easy to convince them," he said. "Not now. The doctor's right. We need to leave."

"Where are we going to go?" Izuki asked. "We're all sick and dying!"

Sakura looked away.

…If she didn't give all the oral vaccine to the villagers…if she left enough for the Anbu ninjas to take…

"I'm not trying to reprimand you or anything," she suddenly heard Izuki say gently. She looked up at him and saw a sweet smile on his face. "Our mission was to keep them alive," she heard him continue. "Besides, we're ninjas. Every mission for us is a suicide mission. I'm just pissed those people were that stupid to believe Yoake."

Sakura nodded but still looked away.

It was true that a ninja's every mission, especially for Anbu ninjas, was a suicide mission. But knowing for sure that she would lose Izuki, Gaita, Mito and Jirotaiku…was horrible than the thought of possibly dying in a mission.

Izuki squeezed her hand.

Gaita, Jirotaiku, Mito and Kaitaro were already discussing a plan to escape the village.

"I'll haunt Jiro forever if he doesn't make sure you get back to Konoha alive," Izuki whispered softly.

Sakura looked confused at him.

Izuki just smiled. "Don't mind us, alright?" he said. "We're Anbu ninjas. We can take care of ourselves."

Explosions suddenly echoed everywhere.

Sakura saw the flames again. It was greedily eating up everything she could see.

"-kura!" she heard Jirotaiku's voice call in the searing heat.

She tried to call his name back but she just ended up giving out a series of dry and painful coughs. The smoke was stinging her eyes and nose. She began to choke. Her attempt to inhale more oxygen only led her to feel more strangled than before.

She sobbed…she wept…she cried… she whimpered… She let herself sob like a toddler who lost her mother in the dark.

She was dying. No point acting brave when the only thing that could see her was the flames that were going to burn her to death.

Sakura tried to open her stinging eyes one last time, just to look at death in the eye before she lost her battle.

And she did.

Death, like so many depictions of it in books and novels, was pitch-black. He had a fair face that resembled Sasuke's, black hair that reminded her of Sasuke's tresses, burning red eyes that scared her like Sasuke's activated mangekyou, and voice…so cold yet soothing…like…

"-kura! Can you hear me?"

She felt herself being lifted up from the fiery floor. Her head rested on Death's warm chest feeling Death's frantic heartbeat.

She felt herself glide swiftly through hell's black flames…cool wind suddenly touching her burning cheeks…chill creeping into her skin…

…Frost…on her back as she softly hit the ground.

"Sakura!" Sasuke called as he knelt down beside Sakura's bloody body on the snow.

Kaitaro was already sitting across him, checking Sakura's vital signs.

Daiki stood near them, anxious and waiting to be ordered to do something…**anything** that could help revive Sakura.

Sakura's half open pale green eyes were almost grey. They stared up lifeless at the gloomy sky.

"Sakura! Can you hear me?" Sasuke called – his voice breaking at the sight of her pale face. Parts of her kimono had already been burned, exposing her bandages to the flames and burning parts of her severed skin. Her chest wasn't moving. Her body was partly warm only because it came out of the burning house.

"Sakura, **please**!" Sasuke called, tears peeking out from his dark eyes. He could still smell the smoke in his skin…in Sakura's burned hair…in her dead face…

Kaitaro began to perform CPR, making Sakura's heart contract by applying rhythmic pressure over her chest.

"Air," he said calmly. "Sasuke, she needs air!"

After five chest compressions, Sasuke angled Sakura's head and blew air into her mouth.

Her lips were soft but cold. And he could taste her blood in his tongue.

He leaned away and watched the doctor coax her heart to move. He counted the chest compressions and blew air into her mouth again when the doctor paused.

He muttered curses as the doctor resumed with the compressions. He mumbled threats to Sakura that if she didn't come back he will never forgive her. He whispered words telling her Ino and Naruto will hate her for giving up so easily. He mumbled remarks about how weak she was if she didn't start breathing soon…

He uttered her name. He called her name the way he wanted to do so ever since he stopped seeing her in his jail cell. He pleadingly called her name as his eyes gazed at her dead pale green ones, asking her to come back to him…to at least give him a sign that she would live.

The seconds ticked. Sakura remained still. Kaitaro kept giving her chest compressions. The taste of her blood in Sasuke's lips made the situation sink inside him.

She was alive and breathing before he left the house. She talked to him, her pale green eyes looking at him…crying…

She didn't want him to go.

And perhaps he shouldn't have left at all. If he was there, he would get her out in time. He would have put the fire out, or got her away from the woods. He would have protected her. He would have hidden her away.

She might still be alive if he stayed.

Sasuke closed his eyes as he blew air into her mouth once more - his fingers sinking into her burnt tresses. He leaned away and wiped the black stains on her cold cheeks.

"She's a criminal," he heard one villagers say.

It was then that he realized where they were – in the forest, with groups of villagers and soldiers watching him, Kaitaro and Daiki struggle to revive Sakura.

…With Houren or Yoake in that crowd - the monster who put her into her cursed fate...

"Why are they helping her?" whispered another villager. "She's a witch."

"Maybe that black flame was her soul burning in the fire," muttered another. "Murderers have black souls."

Sasuke clenched his fists. His body was trembling but not because of anxiety or sadness or fright...

"**WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU**?" Sasuke shouted, suddenly on his feet and glaring daggers at the crowd.

Daiki, Houren and the villagers froze. Kaitaro cursed.

Sasuke was not furious. He was **livid**. And revealing what Sasuke was, and what he could do at that very moment was **not** a good idea.

Kaitaro continued with the chest compressions, begging Sakura to come back to them before all hell broke loose. He shut his eyes and subtly positioned his hands on where the core of her chakra circulatory system should be.

It was then that he felt something inside her kimono. He stiffened, realizing what it was. He quickly slipped it further into the kimono and pretended to give chest compressions.

"WASN'T SHE THE DOCTOR WHO SAVED YOUR LIVES?" Sasuke's voice echoed frighteningly in the woods. His cold eyes looked at every villager in the crowd. Each one of them flinched at his glare. "WHOM YOU OWE THE LIVES OF YOUR CHILDREN TO..? WHOM YOUR GRANDCHILDREN OWE THEIR LIVES TO..? WASN'T SHE THAT DOCTOR WHO TREATED YOUR DISGUSTING WOUNDS AND MADE YOU THOSE MIRACULOUS PILLS?"

The crackling sounds of the fire echoed in the woods. Kaitaro's muttered count on the chest compressions was the only audible sound in the air.

"AND YOU CALL HER A WITCH..? A CRIMINAL..? FOR WHAT..? FOR SAVING YOUR LIVES? If that's the case, then all your soldiers, ALL YOUR KIND AND CARING CITIZENS, ALL THE SOLDIERS RISKING THEIR LIVES TO PROTECT YOU and even DR. KAYUKI KAITARO here ARE WITCHES! WARLOCKS! MURDERERS! **NO ONE SHOULD LET ALL OF YOU LIVE!**"

"Daiki!" Kaitaro snapped, breaking Daiki's stupor.

Daiki quickly stood in front of Sasuke and gripped his arms. "We were planning to help her," he said loudly. "We were just scared of the flames."

Sasuke glared sternly at him.

Daiki swallowed, chills running up his spine. He knew there was no way that he could stop Sasuke from whatever he would want to do, and he knew what Sasuke said had a point.

But the doctor was right. There were more important things to worry about and letting Sasuke express his anger on the villagers won't do him **or** Sakura any good.

"I'm sorry," Houren said calmly. "I understand that this does not happen in the village you come from, Sasuke-san."

Sasuke stared coldly at Houren.

"We are terribly sorry for showing inhumanity," Houren said – his face showing sadness and compassion.

Sasuke just wanted to hurl his fist on the fake expression on Houren's face. NO...on **Yoake's** face.

"But Daiki is right," Houren said. "We were overwhelmed with fright at the sight of the fire. I'm sure you have heard from Dr. Kayuki about the arsons we had experienced not long ago – the love ones we lost in those flames and the experience we had with being stuck inside burning structures. We did not mean to leave her to die inside. We weren't actually sure someone was there. We couldn't worry about her immediately with the trauma we have. I'm very sorry."

"Really..?" Sasuke spat. "**You** didn't want to burn her inside that house? Like those people in the hospital that you-"

"Sasuke!" Daiki hissed. "This is not the time! This will not get Sakura back!"

Sasuke clenched his trembling fists tighter.

It may not bring her back to him, but it sure as **hell** will give her justice!

"I think I got a pulse!" Kaitaro cried out, feeling Sakura's carotid artery on the side of her neck.

Sasuke quickly knelt back down beside Sakura's body.

"It's very faint," Kaitaro said firmly. "But it's enough to keep her alive for now." He gently closed Sakura's eyes, hiding the brighter shade of green that had filled it.

"Let's take her to the village," Houren said. He turned to Akio. "Akio, take Haruno-san."

"NO!" Sasuke snapped, glaring at Houren.

"Sasuke can carry her to the clinic," Kaitaro declared looking straight at Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded and quickly took Sakura in his arms.

"Give her first aid the minute you reach the clinic," Kaitaro instructed as he covered Sakura's body with his own coat. "Now run." He then leaned closer and began to whisper, "…But don't disappear until you're out of their sight."

Sasuke nodded at Kaitaro and ran quickly passed the villagers without giving the others a second glance.

Daiki walked to Kaitaro. "Those black flames," he whispered.

"Was Sasuke's doing, yes," Kaitaro whispered.

Daiki looked back at the burning house. The flames had subsided.

When the black flames appeared and Sasuke vanished, the amber flames were swept on the sides of the house. It wasn't until Sasuke ran through the black flames with Sakura, that the black flames vanished and the amber ones came back to feed on the center of the house.

And the amber flames had noticeably weakened.

"Jiro-kun wasn't kidding when he said Sakura was in love with a terrifying ninja," Daiki whispered.

"No, he wasn't," Kaitaro said, wiping his ashed and bloody hands on his stained beige wrap-around shirt. "He was only putting it in simple terms."

Daiki swallowed and turned back to the crowd.

Houren had instructed them to go back to their houses, and a lot of them had began to walk away from the scene.

"I will have my men investigate on how the fire started," Houren told Kaitaro. "Please send Sasuke-san my sincere apologies."

"I will," Kaitaro answered.

"Will we start putting the fire out?" Daiki asked.

"Yes," Houren answered. "Take your men and start piling snow on the flames. That should stop it. See if your men can retrieve any of Haruno-san's possessions. She may be a case suspect, but she still deserves to keep her own properties…or what's left of it."

Daiki nodded and walked away to call his men.

Kaitaro stood in the woods until the others had left.

"How much does he know?" Kaitaro asked.

"Who are you talking about exactly?" Houren asked as he walked to stand beside Kaitaro. He combed the ends of his long white hair with his fingertips. "The lover..? Or your nephew..?"

Kaitaro looked up at him. "Both," he said.

"Well the only thing I haven't told loverboy about is what cherry blossom did to him," Houren said. "And the only things your nephew doesn't know about is my awesome plan and loverboy's…strength."

Kaitaro raised a brow at Houren. "Why did he act that way then?" he asked. "He knew I was protecting Sakura anyway."

Houren stared boredly at Kaitaro, as if the answer to his question lay in plain sight. He sighed, seeing Kaitaro still hasn't found the answer. "One, he's theatrical," he answered. "He got **that** part of me right. How else did you think I got loverboy to get here on time? Two, he can't fight you in front of the villagers – not when the villagers trust you more than they trust him."

Kaitaro sighed. "It's not enough to convince any of them that those accusations about Sakura aren't true though," he said.

"See, that's one trait of humanity that makes them 'human'," Houren said.

Kaitaro raised a brow at him.

"Idiocy," Houren answered. "…Stubborness…Oh and, selfishness. That makes **three** traits. It's part of their basic instinct."

"You seem to be forgetting something," Kaitaro said staring at Houren.

Houren raised a brow at him.

"You married a human," he said. "And you're talking to a human being right now."

Houren smirked. "First statement is true," he replied. "Second one is false. You're not human. You're part human, part **me**. How else could you have 'revived' Sakura?"

Kaitaro rolled his eyes.


	42. Chapter 42

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing the past chapter, and for being really patient with me.I know I'm awfully late this week.  
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_I'll answer the queries/comments and discuss other matters on next week's chapter. I have tons of things I need to do this week so I'm terribly sorry. _

_I posted another story on BookRix (while I was writing the next chapters for my ffics. I needed something to take some of the stress away). _I didn't do it for a contest this time, but I would really appreciate if you'd read and give comments about it. Just search for 'Callele Lyvance' on BookRix, and check the second ebook under the account. (Please leave reviews/flames on the webpage. It's easier to read them there _* v *_ )_  
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___Anyway, here's this week's chapter. Tell me what you think a__bout it too! ___^ v ^

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><p>Sasuke pulled out the blood-stained journal out of Sakura's kimono.<p>

He had finished fixing a nasal cannula on Sakura when he noticed that something was hidden inside the top of her kimono.

The journal was placed against her torso. Either it slipped down her stomach while he carried her out of the house, or the doctor had noticed it while giving her compressions, and he subtly slid it further into her kimono so no one else in the crowd would see it.

Sasuke wiped the cover of the journal with his hand.

The blood on the cover was still fresh. It stained his already bloody hands with more blood.

The journal's cover turned out to be a very thin sheet of…leather..? But on the edges, there were traces of melted paper.

It was as if the journal was especially made to protect its pages from water…from blood…from situations such as-

Sasuke looked at Sakura's sleeping form.

He had given her the first aid that Kaitaro instructed him to do. What was left for him to do was clean her and change her bandages.

Sasuke looked down at the journal again. How did Sakura get the journal anyway?

He opened the journal and carefully checked its pages. There were bloodstains, as expected, but they were present only in the corners of each page.

And there were pages with different handwritings…

"…need to get out of the village," he read the unfamiliar handwriting just as Keiko walked into the room with a box of medical supplies.

"Here are the bandages," she said, placing the box on the table by Sakura's bed. "I really want to take charge of the bandaging since I'm a **girl** but you're acting like she's your girl so, just call me if you need anything."

He watched Keiko take a stainless bowl from the box. She walked to the faucet in corner and filled it up with water.

"If the chief's son wasn't your 'heir,'" he remembered asking Houren before the Snow Spirit noticed the gradual demise of the remaining Anrui flower. "Who 's your 'heir'?"

"You know him as Kayuki Kaitaro," Houren answered. "I've taught him a lot already when Yoake's father insisted that Yoake be my heir. I couldn't tell them I've already chosen Kaitaro as my heir, not when Yoake had made being an 'heir' the only reason for his existence. Kaitaro wouldn't be alive today if I did."

"So the cycle in your clan is broken," Sasuke told Houren.

"No," Houren said. "You see, so long as I'm here and my genes are being passed from one generation to another, the cycle exists. Trust me. I thought it was finally broken too. But lo and behold, I met a grandchild who was worthy of becoming my 'heir.'"

Sasuke remembered raising a brow at Houren.

Houren sighed. "Kaitaro's daughter, Keiko," he said.

Sasuke stared surprised at Houren. "She's a toddler."

"She's so much more than you think she is," Houren said. "She could do things her own father couldn't – things **I** can do."

Keiko placed the bowl of water on the table.

Was Keiko's mature way of thinking a sign of what Houren meant? Or was it just a result of the things that had happened in the village?

"I'll be in the kitchen," Keiko said as she walked to the door to kiss Kaitaro, who was suddenly standing by the door.

Kaitaro leaned down to kiss Keiko's cheek and watched her walk down the hall.

Sasuke stared at the doctor.

"You know about her too," Kaitaro said, turning to look at Sasuke as he went into the room.

Sasuke looked down at the blood stained journal in his hand.

Kaitaro sighed. "None of us liked it," he said. "My wife hated it most especially. But there are things…to be considered."

"Like what..?" Sasuke muttered.

"Like how we would need to keep people from freaking out when Keiko tells them things that are about to happen to them," Kaitaro said.

Sasuke raised his brows at the doctor.

Kaitaro smiled as he checked on Sakura's vital signs. She was weak, but stable. "She has an incredible foresight," he said. "It's one of the things only an 'heir' of our clan has."

"You didn't have it though," Sasuke said.

"…At my disposal, no, I didn't," Kaitaro said. "But I was one of those descendants that were fated to have a child with the ability. You see Houren's children each bore some of his traits. Some of them had more than the other. When the family tradition began, it was done more for the love and understanding in the family. Later on, they realized there must be something more to it."

Kaitaro took a piece of white cloth and soaked it in the bowl of water. He squeezed some of the water off and began wiping the stains off of Sakura's face.

Sasuke kept his eyes on him, curious on what else the doctor was going to say.

"Houren's first grandchildren turned out to have more of their grandfather's traits," Kaitaro said, wiping the stains on Sakura's neck. "One of them exhibited more traits than others, making it for him to blend in the village as a normal human child. That one descendant was chosen as the second heir. That particular quality had hence become the standard of choosing Houren's heir in the family."

Sasuke looked down at the blood-stained journal.

So when the chief's only son exhibited exemplary intelligence, the chief thought his son was Houren's heir for that generation.

"I had a knack for healing people," Kaitaro said smiling as he washed the cloth in the bowl of water. "Hideaki, my cousin, had a knack for remembering things. He had what was clinically termed as eidetic memory. He easily remembers things that he sees and reads about. He could even remember the corresponding days of events dating several years back."

Sasuke looked at Kaitaro. "Photographic memory," he said.

"Yes," Kaitaro answered, wiping the stains on Sakura's exposed arm. "That's why he was so intelligent. He never forgot what he learned. His father thought too much of him. He found the ability as an 'inhuman' trait, so he deduced that Hideaki would be chosen by Houren as the heir. His belief was further assured when he found Hideaki talking to Houren one night."

Sasuke raised a brow at Kaitaro. From what he understood, Houren only spoke with the chosen heir. If Kaitaro was the heir, why did Houren talk to Hideaki?

Kaitaro sighed sadly, remembering how furious his uncle was at the sight of the two conversing in the garden. The eight-year-old Kaitaro stood watching them from the back door that led to the snowy stone garden.

"Hideaki and I grew up treating each other as brothers," Kaitaro said. "Very close brothers. So when he saw Houren teaching me some techniques in healing people, and he pieced two and two together, he felt upset…Upset enough to ask Houren to choose him as heir instead of me."

Sasuke looked away.

The chief took everything the wrong way.

"Yoake's mother was an orphan girl my parents took in their care," Kaitaro said. "She was twelve years older than me, and we treated each other as family. My parents were friends with her parents. So when her parents died, my parents offered her a home. She insisted that she work as a servant, instead of being legally adopted. At that time, we were staying in the clan compound where the palace is."

Kaitaro washed he muddied cloth in the bowl again before he picked up a pair of scissors from the box of medial supplies. He began cutting the torn sleeves of Sakura's kimono, carefully examining the damage on her bandages and on her exposed skin.

"Hidaeki's father locked himself in his room for months," Kaitaro said. "The other members of the clan including my parents made sure the village kept running smoothly. They understood what he was going through. Then she went missing. We all looked for her for days. Three weeks later, Hidaeki's father went out of his room looking disturbingly and insanely proud of himself. We found her in the room, naked, tied up, muffled and catatonic. Nine months later, she gave birth to Yoake."

Sasuke kept his eyes on Sakura's wounded hand.

"It was a terrible blow to the clan," Kaitaro said placing the torn pieces of garment on the table. "Houren himself felt terrible. He and I knew my uncle had lost his mind. My parents and our other relatives tried their best to suppress the issue. They told Hideaki's father that if he didn't straighten himself up, he would lose his position in the village. This threat helped him act more proper than he had been acting. But there was still a hint of insanity in his eyes, and that told me and Houren that there was no point in trying to cure him."

Kaitaro walked to the faucet to wash his hands. He then went back and wore a pair of surgical gloves. After putting on a surgical mask, he gently peeled the remaining bandages off, ripping off some of the burned flesh.

Sasuke fixed his eyes on the journal, feeling uncomfortable with watching the doctor work.

"When she was about to give birth, Hideaki's father kept her confined in the palace," Kaitaro said. "…More to make sure that the baby was born alive. He wanted the infant to be kept like a prisoner in the palace, and its mother thrown out of the village. The clan immediately knew what he wanted to do. They opposed him. He heeded to their plea. But after a couple of years, the elders of the clan died one by one…the bluntest members followed…

The other members of the clan forced the rest of the members to flea. My family sought refuge down the mountain. I came back here as an accomplished doctor with a family of my own only because I received word about Hideaki's death. We were warmly welcomed by Yoake and his father, but I insisted on staying farther up the mountain – in the ancestral house of our clan."

Sasuke stiffened. He looked at Kaitaro. "The house," he said.

Kaitaro smiled. "Yes," he said. "That was Houren's house – the house he shared with Keiko."

Sasuke looked down at the journal. Houren was protecting Sakura. He was really protecting her.

"Why did you name your daughter 'Keiko'?" he asked.

Kaitaro chuckled. "Kei liked the name," he answered. "She said she had a feeling her daughter was greatly blessed. It freaked Houren out, hearing his grandchild was named after his deceased wife. What bothered all of us more though was how Keiko began foretelling the future through scribbles. As it turned out, whatever potential I had in my genes was passed on and further actualized in Keiko."

Kaitaro began drying some of the blood from the wounds on Sakura's arm with cotton balls.

"We realized she knew so much more than children her age," Kaitaro said. "She had gifts no average human child could have. And keeping her here in this world, could most likely do her more harm than good. The people behind the clan tradition feared that her gifts could be used to destroy people."

"Yoake isn't an heir," Sasuke said.

"True," Kaitaro said smirking as he began cutting the sleeve of Sakura's torn kimono. "But he wouldn't be able to do those things if he wasn't guided with the ways of an 'heir.' Only one descendant per generation is given the knowledge to actualize our potentials, and that one descendant is locked away from this world once he or she has obtained that knowledge. Yoake wasn't supposed to be an 'heir.' He was just trained to be one. If he **was** one, my wife might still be around."

He then looked at Sasuke. "You should go and rest," he said. "I'll take care of this. Go clean yourself."

Sasuke just kept his eyes on Kaitaro. "You told me they would start searching the south side of the forest."

Kaitaro smiled sadly at Sasuke. "Yes, my apologies," he said. "There were things that you needed to know."

Sasuke stared at him for a moment, trying to read the truth in Kaitaro's words. "Does she know about this?" he asked.

"…That I would be in on today's plan?" Kaitaro asked. "No."

Sasuke nodded and looked down at Sakura's body. They would need to change the bed linen after they cleaned her up.

"I'll need help with the bandage later," Kaitaro said. "I can't have you helping me here when your hands are that dirty."

Sasuke glanced at Kaitaro before he walked out of the room, leaving the blood-stained journal on the bed.

Kaitaro looked at the journal.

He planned to tell Sasuke **his** part of the secret. But perhaps…it could wait. Sasuke had a lot to digest at the moment.

* * *

><p>"What do we do now?" Akio asked Houren anxiously as Houren calmly drank his tea.<p>

Akio couldn't help but wonder about what had transpired moments earlier. The fact that Sasuke came to Sakura's rescue, and the fact that Sasuke mentioned something about the hospital meant that Sasuke was in on the secret.

And yet Houren seemed unfazed…calm and confident even.

"What do you mean by that exactly?" Houren asked as he set his tea cup down on the table.

He chose to retire to his room with his favourite tea upon arriving in the palace.

"Those black flames earlier," Akio said."That was Sasuke's doing, wasn't it?"

"I believe so," Houren said calmly.

Akio frowned. "The Uchiha knows something now, doesn't he?"

"Certainly," Houren answered smirking. "It bothers you?"

"Shouldn't it?" Akio asked.

Houren chuckled. "Dear, dear Akio, calm down," he said. "There is nothing to worry about."

"But Sasuke is-"

"Sasuke is **right** where we need him to be," Houren said smiling proudly at Akio. "Patience, Akio. Right now, Uchiha would need to mourn for our little cherry blossom. You wouldn't want him to lose that chance now, would you?"

Akio stared confused at Houren.

Houren chuckled. "Drink your tea, Akio," he said.


	43. Chapter 43

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll' _^ v ^

_I don't think it's weird, _**BananaphoneBob**_. I like Akio too...yeah...I do. _

_Okay...hate message for Yoake on the review list. Wow. _

_Sakura shall live..? Let's wait and see, shall we? _^ v ^

_Anyway, here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you think about it! _

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><p>Kakashi looked at the woods stretching out and away from the Konoha gates.<p>

It was almost eleven in the evening and the Anbu ninjas were busy on guard in their respective stations.

Kakashi sighed as he slumped and perched on the top of the village wall.

"Will you really kill him?" asked an Anbu standing three feet away from him on the wall.

"Do you doubt my skill? Or my allegiance..?" Kakashi said, eyes fixed at the dark path below them.

"I'm asking you what to do," the Anbu said, his grey eyes looking through the slits of his mask.

Kakashi chuckled. "What are your orders?" he asked.

"Protect the village," the Anbu answered. "Is Uchiha going to threaten the village's peace?"

Kakashi looked up at the Anbu. "For an Anbu, you're too…critical."

"For a teacher of team 7 you're acting too…indifferent," the Anbu said.

Kakashi smirked, his eyes smiling at the Anbu. "So you really **doubt** my allegiance," he said.

"I'm just ensuring the success of this mission," the Anbu said.

Kakashi sighed and nodded before he turned to look at the dark path once more. "Just leave him to me," he said. "If I fail, by all means kill me. I'm sure that would be the punishment the elders will give me for treason anyway."

"Tempting," the Anbu said. "But I'm afraid I'll only do that once you prove to me that you're a threat to Konoha. And that means if you decide to help Uchiha destroy the village."

Kakashi chuckled. "You're too kind," he said. "But that won't be necessary."

"I'm not doing this for you," the Anbu said. "So don't be too flattered."

Kakashi looked up at the Anbu.

"You know how irritating Uzumaki Naruto is, don't you?" the Anbu said.

Kakashi chuckled. "He found out about the mission then?"

"Not quite," the Anbu answered. "But he knows Uchiha's…going to be a target. It's not that hard to figure out."

Kakashi nodded. "Well, that would definitely tip the scale now, wouldn't it?" he said. "Konoha might lose two of its best ninjas afterall."

"Three," the Anbu corrected. "I know you wouldn't want to be left out when that happens…Not when even Haruno Sakura is gone with them."

Kakashi laughed. "You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you're not Jirotaiku's twin. Heck! I wouldn't even say you're related to him at all!"

"We're fraternal twins," the Anbu answered. "And between the two of us, he's an ass. I'm a jerk."

Kakashi shook his head. "So did you really like Sakura too?"

"I can tell you I'm greatly motivated in this mission," the Anbu answered.

Kakashi looked up at him. "What if Sasuke doesn't kill her?"

"No point in giving him a horrible death then," the Anbu said.

* * *

><p>Sasuke pulled the blanket up to cover Sakura's shoulders.<p>

He and Kaitaro had just finished changing her bandages and her bedsheet.

Kaitaro was already packing up the things they used.

Sasuke fixed his eyes on Sakura's face. She was still in a sickly shade of pale. And her tresses looked dull and dry.

Kaitaro was about to walk out the door with the box of medical supplies when he heard Sasuke speak.

"Is there really no other way?" he asked.

Kaitaro stiffened. He sighed and placed the box back down on the table where he placed Sakura's journal on when Sasuke left earlier to wash his hands.

The doctor traced the blood-stained cover of the journal with his fingers.

"I just…I just don't understand," Sasuke said – his eyes fixed at Sakura's face. "My mission is just to take the scroll to Konoha? I just can't…I can't believe it! Why would she send for an Anbu or a Jounin? Why would she send for **me**? If finding the cure for her isn't part of the mission, why did she need to have a high ranking ninja by her side?"

"I have a confession to make," Kaitaro said.

Sasuke turned to look at the doctor.

He was tracing the blood stains on the journal.

"Sakura-san…asked for a ninja to be sent here," Kaitaro said. "But she didn't specifically ask for you."

Sasuke raised his brows.

Sakura **told** Tsunade **not** to send Uchiha Sasuke there? WHY WAS HE SENT THERE THEN?

Kaitaro took a deep breath and looked up at Sasuke. "Jirotaiku was a very talkative lad," he said. "He looks…quiet and reserved like you. But once he learns to trust you, he never stops talking," he said smiling at him. "He once told us about a man that Sakura-san loved – the only man she devoted her heart to."

Sasuke stiffened. He could feel sparks of elecrtricity coursing through his veins…catching his breath…stopping his heartbeat…

"She grew up with him," Kaitaro said. "Jiro-kun said the man changed and waged war against their village. It was only a few years ago that he returned and began to live peacefully in Konoha. And even after those times that the man tried to kill Sakura-san, Jiro-kun said she still reserved her love for him."

Sasuke's hands were shaking.

How could Jirotaiku say such things to Kaitaro? Weren't he and Sakura a couple? Weren't they in love with each other? Wasn't Sakura in love with Jirotaiku?

"Even though Jiro-kun professed his love and devotion to Sakura-san," Kaitaro continued. "She still chose to stay alone and love that ninja from a far."

"N-no," Sasuke whispered. "No…you're lying…"

Kaitaro looked down at the journal again.

"Jiro-kun said his name was Uchiha Sasuke," Kaitaro said. "When we learned about her condition, we felt devastated. After all those great things she did for us, she just got **this**…This horrible sickness…The looming death. We wanted to make it up to her, to repay her for her kindness. But the cure was out of the equation. It just doesn't exist. So I opted to give her the chance to be with the one she loved, even just in the last days of her life."

Kaitaro looked up at Sasuke.

Sasuke was still…too still.

"Before the second group of Anbu ninjas rescued Jirotaiku," Kaitaro began. "Sakura-san made another scroll containing instructions and reports to the Hokage. She specifically asked for a powerful and efficient ninja to be sent here to retrieve the scroll. She somehow knew she wasn't going to make it out of the village. But she hoped. She really hoped she could return to Konoha."

"Knowing her condition, I wrote a separate note for the Hokage, asking a ninja named Uchiha Sasuke to be sent here. I slipped the note into the scroll when we realized Sakura could no longer be transported outside the village. She didn't know I sent for you until-"

"Until I asked you to check on her when she fainted," Sasuke finished.

"Yes," Kaitaro answered.

Sasuke turned his head away. He fixed his eyes on the white blanket warming Sakura.

_Sakura sighed. "Look," she began. "I'm sorry you have to do all these things for me. I didn't do this so you can be my slave. You think I don't feel humiliated by all of this?_

_If you think I'm keeping you here so you can get sick, you're wrong!" she yelled back. "I didn't even want you here! I wanted Jirotaiku to be here, not you!"_

"_Tell your Jirotaiku to feed you then!" Sasuke shouted._

Sasuke felt something inside his heart crumble. He felt his veins twinge. His hands had folded into fists…trembling fists…

"She told me wonderful things about Konoha," Kaitaro said. "She told me about her genin team – about a teacher who kept half his face hidden, a ninja who loved to eat ramen, and a powerful and intelligent ninja she fell in love with when she was young. She would tell Keiko stories about the missions they shared together – those hilarious times when the ramen-loving ninja and the intelligent one tried to eat dinner faster than the other, and ended up feeling sick; when they tried to walk up a tree…She always ended with wondering how those ninjas were doing. She especially wondered about Uchiha Sasuke – if he was eating well without her; if he was letting the doctors check his wounds; if he was better; if he was having a hard time living with the villagers…"

"She wanted to go home and meet all of you again," Kaitaro said. "But she always thought it was impossible – that she would die here in the village without seeing all of you again. I didn't have the money to pay for all three of you. And the Anbu ninjas said the Hokage wouldn't send you here even if I did because you were on probation. So I just begged her to do so. I told her Sakura-san's condition, and how I thought it would at least make her happy to see you one last time before she went away."

Sasuke took a deep breath, ignoring the lump forming in his throat – the blur forming in his vision.

_"You haven't told me how Konoha is," he heard Sakura say – her voice more relaxed and steady._

_Sasuke paused for a moment before he wrapped her lower torso with the bandage._

_What should he say about Konoha? The only thing he was happy about in Konoha was the improvement of his status._

_"How is Naruto?" Sakura asked, as if hearing his thoughts._

_"Annoying," Sasuke answered._

_Sakura chuckled. "Still noisy..?"_

_"Very," Sasuke muttered, thinking that entertaining her would at least keep her attention from the pain he was inflicting with the bandage._

_Sakura laughed. "He missed you, you know," she said._

_"Hn."_

_Sakura smiled. _

_"Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke heard Sakura say as he reached his hand out to her chest – his hand about to lay the second layer of bandage over the contours of her chest._

_"Is he okay?" Sakura asked, knowing Sasuke wouldn't give her any details._

_"Hn," Sasuke answered as he continued to cover the first layer of bandages with another layer._

_Sakura smirked. "Still reading his book?"_

_Sasuke thought for a moment._

_No. In those few times he saw Kakashi, he wasn't reading anything. Either he was focused on making small talks with him, or he was busy staring at nowhere – times when Sasuke spied on him out of curiosity._

_If seeing Kakashi staring at nowhere instead of seeing him reading the pornographic book he always carried was odd, then yes. He was acting odd._

_Sakura sighed, hearing no response from Sasuke. "He knows I'm here," she said softly._

_Sasuke looked at Sakura's pale pink hair. Her head was still bowed._

_"Yamanaka..?" Sakura heard Sasuke ask._

_Sakura chuckled and shook her head, knowing that Sasuke asked her if Ino knew what Kakashi did. "Is she still pestering you?" she asked._

_"She's Nara's girl," Sasuke answered preparing a third layer of bandages to protect her skin._

_Sakura gasped in excitement. "Really! Shikamaru finally did it!"_

_Sasuke found himself smirking, hearing the cheerful Sakura he knew from when he was younger. "Hn," he said._

_"How did he do it? How long have they been together? The last time I saw them, Shikamaru was still thinking if he wanted Ino, and Ino was jealous of Temari!"_

_"I'm sorry," Sakura said._

_Sasuke stared at her._

_"It's too troublesome to tell, isn't it?" she said. "I bet it's too bothersome to talk about."_

_"Nara was given a mission in Suna," Sasuke said as he began placing the third layer around Sakura's chest."Had to attend some wedding," Sasuke continued, wrapping the bandage just below her chest. "Naruto, Inuzuka, and Akimichi spread a rumor about Nara getting married in Suna."_

_"What?" Sakura gasped._

_"Nara ignored them," Sasuke said keeping his eyes on the bandage he was working on. "Yamanaka took it seriously."_

_"Oh dear," Sakura said anxiously. "What happened? Did Ino confront him?"_

_"Hn," Sasuke answered wrapping the bandage around her torso. "Told him she liked him and she hoped he'd be happy."_

_"Oh," Sakura sighed sadly._

_"Nara laughed," Sasuke said, knowing that it saddened Sakura._

_"Eh? He **laughed**?" Sakura asked aghast._

_"How could he **laugh **at her?" Sakura burst out in anger. "I bet Ino used up all her courage to say whatever she said!"_

_Sasuke smirked. "She walked out," he said._

_"Damn right, she should walk out! He could have at least told her he was sorry that he couldn't reciprocate her feelings!"_

_"He kissed her," Sasuke said_.

_"Aww," he heard Sakura sigh. "I didn't think Shikamaru would do that. I guess that's what he meant when he said his feelings were troublesome – it pushed him to do things he wouldn't normally do."_

Sasuke could feel the pain in his chest grow. Where was the numbness when he needed it?

"_I'll let you in on a secret," he heard Sakura say before he could reach bedroom door. _

"_I can't leave this place," she said. "I can't even leave this house."_

_Sasuke turned and stared confused at Sakura. _

"_I tried to get away from here once," she said. "They were on their way to Konoha with Jirotaiku. I was supposed to go back to Konoha with them. But after running a few leagues from this house, I started coughing out blood."_

"_I fainted," she said. "When I woke up, I was back here. The doctor said I slept for a week."_

"_The doctor said some of my organs bled," Sakura continued. "I had a lot of bruises. My veins couldn't handle the sudden change in my blood pressure so I wasn't allowed to move much after that. And the sudden change in air pressure when I tried to go down the mountain also contributed to the internal hemorrahage I had."_

"_In short," Sakura said. "I can't go back to Konoha. Or perhaps I can, but I wouldn't be alive enough to know that I've reached the village."_

"One other thing the Anbu ninjas told me about you, was your feelings toward Sakura-san," Kaitaro said. "They told me that the whole time she was with you, you wanted nothing but to kill her. So to have you here would only bring her more harm."

Sasuke swallowed.

Yes. Yes, he wanted to kill her. He wanted to lock his hand in her throat until she choked and stopped breathing. He wanted to see her die. He wanted to see her corpse.

Why? Why did he want her dead? Because she was from Konoha..? Because she humiliated him..? Because…

…Because whenever he saw her in his cell, he couldn't help but wonder why he wanted to kill her. He couldn't help but wonder why she was still there…Why she was so stupid! Why she still checked on him, gave him food, gave him medicines even when he threatened her life!

…Why…she seemed to still love him… And it just…It just made him feel more stupid than Sakura – hating someone who did nothing but love him.

"That was one other thing that convinced me to ask for you to be here," Kaitaro said, breaking Sasuke's thoughts.

Sasuke froze.

…One...other thing..?

"Your mission was to take the scroll to Konoha," Kaitaro asked. "…By all means, yes?"

Sasuke felt his heart stop.

"_Will you kill her?" Keiko asked. _

_Sasuke raised a brow at the child. _

_Keiko's eyes were fixed on her frail hand that gripped Sasuke's cloak. _

"_Who will I kill?" Sasuke asked seeing the girl had no plan of elaborating her question._

"_The writer of the scroll," Keiko said. "Are you going to kill her?"_

_Keiko still didn't look at him. _

"_My mission is to take the scroll to our village," Sasuke answered. _

_Keiko smiled and looked up at him. "You won't kill her then," she said. _

"_My mission is to take the scroll," Sasuke said. "If she refuses…"_

"_She won't refuse," Keiko immediately cut him off. "She's writing it so it could be taken to your village. She won't refuse. So you won't kill her, right?"_

"She would refuse," Sasuke breathlessly said.

"Yes," Kaitaro said. "Sakura's plan was fight whoever the Hokage sent – stop him from taking the scroll to Konoha by pretending that she had sided with Yoake. But she couldn't do it with you for some reason."

"_I was thinking," Sakura began. _

_Sasuke looked at her. Her pale green eyes were focused on her lap "I already have enough record on the illness," she said. _

"_You can take the scroll back to Konoha," she said. _

"NO!" Sasuke said, shutting his eyes and shaking his head. "**That's not my mission**!"

"Yes it is," Kaitaro said. "Sakura wanted a ninja sent here, not to help her in her work. She wanted a ninja who was strong enough to kill her before she died a horrible death - a ninja that would do anything to finish the mission, even if it meant killing the Hokage's apprentice."

Sasuke felt his knees weaken…his body tremble…his world crumble.

...Anything to finish the mission...His mission wasn't to keep Sakura alive after all. It was too keep her from living – kill her.

"I'm sorry," Kaitaro whispered. "I'm very sorry."


	44. Chapter 44

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll' _^ v ^

_Glad you appreciated the Kakashi-part, _**BananaphoneBob!**

_Aww, that's really heartwarming and inspiring _**moonfairy14. *** v * _And I'm really happy your friends liked this story too!_

_I understand how people want Sakura to live. Unfortunately, it's all in the hands of this story's Uchiha Sasuke so...Let's all cross our fingers! Haha! _^ v ^

_Anyway, I re-read some of previous chapters of Scroll and realized that the reason why this story's reached 44 chapters (which disturbs me a lot) is because some of the chapters are too short (though the cliff hangers **were**, in the right place). So..._

_WARNING: Longest chapter in the story right ahead!_

^ v ^ _Do tell me what you think about it. _

* * *

><p>"-eme!"<p>

Sasuke heard a familiar…high-pitched voice yell from the darkness overwhelming his vision.

"Teme! Teme, wake up! TE-ME!"

Sasuke gasped and opened his eyes. He shut them again when he realized the light was too bright for his eyes. He cursed, scratching his eyes as he stretched his limbs.

"Come on! Teme! It's eleven in the morning! You're supposed to be in the Hokage's office by now!" the irritating voice yelled.

"Why the hell are you even here, Dobe?!" Sasuke snapped as he sat up from his bed.

"What do you mean? YOU TOLD ME TO WAKE YOU UP FOR YOUR APPOINTMENT WITH THE HOKAGE! Sheesh…And you're still going to buy me ramen for the trouble you've caused me! I should be in the training grounds with Kiba right now."

Sasuke sighed and rubbed his face several times before he opened his eyes and glared daggers at the blonde in front of him, who was already headed for the door.

"When the hell did I say that?" he grunted, staring the walls of the room he was in. The walls…the familiar white walls that he had stayed in since he got out of his jail cell…The white walls that watched him grow without his blood relatives…

He was in his bedroom..? In his apartment in Konoha..?

Sasuke stiffened as his eyes locked themselves on the empty bedside table where his picture with Team 7 stood. Naruto made sure there was one framed picture there when Sasuke was released from prison to remind him that he still had a family in Konoha.

Where was the picture?

"Last night," Naruto answered. "You said, 'wake me-yup then, doe-beh'," he mockingly said, acting drunk.

Sasuke raised a brow at him. "I don't sound like that."

"Sure you do!" Naruto said, folding his arms. "You do when you smell like vomit and liquor. Take a bath before you get out your apartment, will you? I'm starting to think kicking those Anbu guards away from you isn't such a good idea."

"What?" Sasuke asked, confused at what Naruto was telling him.

…Vomit and liquor?

Sasuke suddenly realized he **did**…stink. He sniffed his shirt and frowned. Uchiha Sasuke doesn't drink. Well, he can handle liquor but he had no reason to drink that much, not when he was trying to behave so the Anbu ninjas won't-

Sasuke froze. He tried to sense the foreign chakras that had always stayed around his apartment – in the trees, across the street, on the neighboring unit…

There was no one else there but Naruto and Sasuke. The Anbu ninjas were-

Sasuke quickly stood up and ran to the open window. He looked out at the street, the roof tops, the bright blue sky…

"You're off the hook," Naruto said without his usual perky tone – his blue eyes watching Sasuke.

Sasuke turned to look at Naruto. "Off the hook..?"

"You've finished your mission," Naruto said. "Try not getting yourself drunk next time. That'll help you remember things."

Sasuke just stared baffled at him. Why on earth would he get himself drunk in the first place?

Naruto sighed and turned away. "I'm going to be late for training," he said. "I'm letting you go out of the house alone today because you look sane. Just remember you'll have to visit the hospital first before you head to Baa-chan's office."

Sasuke watched him walk out of the room…sensed him walk out of the apartment…heard him lock the door behind him…listened to his footsteps as he walked on the corridor…

Sasuke shook his head. He was off the hook? He finished the mission? He was back home? But he was just with… Who was he with? He was sure he wasn't anywhere near Konoha before he woke up. And he was sure he was with someone other than Naruto.

But…

Appointment. He had an appointment with a doctor and the Hokage. Perhaps that would clear things up. Uzumaki was never a reliable source of information after all. He was only a reliable source of noise.

Sasuke sighed and walked to the bathroom, firmly decided on getting the filth away from his skin.

* * *

><p>He found himself in the halls of the hospital, looking around at the people who didn't seem to mind his presence anymore. Several people had passed him, all of them acting like he was a typical member of the village.<p>

"Uchiha-san," called a nurse standing by the nurses' station. "What are you doing there? You're already three hours late for your appointment!"

Sasuke just stared at the nurse. The nurse was one of those medic nins he rarely spoke with in the hospital.

"Well, let's go," the nurse said, waving a hand at him before she turned to a corridor.

Sasuke followed her unsure of what was going on.

She led her down the hall of the hospital that didn't have that many visitors. He could read the names of the doctors on the doors, each of them in charge of a particular health condition.

Somehow he couldn't help but feel giddy about being in the hospital. He looked at every face he passed, hoping one of them was…was…

Sasuke suddenly saw something pink flash from the corner of his eyes.

He felt his heart skip – his breath hitch. He quickly turned to see what it was…and saw a medic nin carrying a vase of pink flowers – Maiden Lilies.

Sasuke froze.

Pink. Why did he feel so excited at the sight of the flowers? …Of the **pink** flowers?

"Sakura," he whispered, remembering a face he should and could never forget. He was with Sakura. He had a mission with Sakura. He just realized what it was and…And Naruto told him he finished the mission..?

Naruto didn't act like he hated him. Perhaps Sasuke did complete the mission. He came back to Konoha with the scroll, and with Sakura! Was she back in the hospital? Was she attending to a patient at that very moment?

Was she…better?

"Uchiha-san," the nurse called, her eyes sadly watching him as she stood beside an open door.

Sasuke looked at her.

"The doctor's waiting," she said.

Sasuke walked to the door, half hoping Sakura was his doctor. But as his eyes registered the sight of a middle-aged, brown-haired man seated behind an office desk, his hope fell.

"Good morning, Uchiha-san," the doctor greeted. "Please take a seat."

Sasuke sat down on one of the chairs in front of the desk while the nurse left and closed the door behind her.

"I hear you're feeling better," the doctor said.

Sasuke stared confused at the doctor. "I'm not sick," he said.

"Yes," the doctor said nodding and looking down at a blank sheet of paper. "So I'm assuming you slept well last night. Did you have a good dream?"

Sasuke frowned. What kind of doctor asks about a patient's dreams? He stiffened, realizing what kind of mess he was in. "I'm not insane!" he snarled.

"No, no," the doctor said, raising his hands. "I'm not saying you are."

"Then why are you asking me like I am?!" Sasuke said, glaring daggers at the doctor. "I'm not disturbed! I'm not drinking! I'm not crazy!"

"Please calm down, Uchiha-san," the doctor said, anxiety reflecting in his ashen eyes. "I'm only here to help you. I won't ask about your dreams. Just…tell me your last memory of Haruno-san."

Sasuke froze.

…In bed, sleeping…pale, cold and…

Sasuke winced, suddenly feeling something tug at his skull. He looked away feeling too dizzy to glare at the doctor.

His eyes caught sight of his hands – his **blood-stained** hands.

Sasuke jolted and stood up from his seat. His hands were clean again.

"Uchiha-san?" the doctor asked.

Sasuke stared at the doctor. What was he doing? …A genjutsu? Wasn't Sasuke already off the hook?

Sasuke rushed to the door, slamming it open. He quickly ran out of the hospital, heading straight to the Hokage's office.

He was home! The Anbu guards were gone! He was free! He finished his mission! Sakura-

* * *

><p>Sasuke saw himself staring at Tsunade in her office.<p>

She looked up at him – her hands busy with the papers on her desk.

"You ran away from your appointment with Dr. Aito again," Tsunade said.

"I'm off the hook," Sasuke said, but more as a question than a declaration.

Tsunade leaned back on her chair. "Yes," she said.

"You have the scroll," Sasuke said.

"I do," Tsunade said.

"I…How did I get here?" Sasuke asked.

Tsunade raised her brow. "You don't remember?" she asked. "You walked into the gates of Konoha, the scroll in your sleeve, and the urn in your arms."

"What urn?!" Sasuke exclaimed, his heart pounding hard against his chest. What urn..? Why would he carry an urn back to Konoha? It wasn't part of his mission!

Tsunade sighed. "The urn where you kept Sakura's ashes in," she said.

Sasuke's eyes went wide. "Ashes…WHAT ASHES..?"

"It's all in your report," Tsunade said pulling out her drawer and fishing out a scroll. She handed it to Sasuke.

Sasuke stared at it for a moment, still confused as to why he couldn't remember even making a report about the mission. He took the scroll and opened it.

The handwriting was his alright. He recognized it well. But the words…

"…Sakura was dying," he read. "There was no cure. Two days later she… No…NO!" Sasuke glared at Tsunade – his limbs trembling in anger. "I didn't make this!"

"Yes you did," Tsunade said. "That's your handwriting, isn't it?"

Sasuke shook his head, eyes fixed at the letters on the scroll. The script was his but the report! It was wrong! It was all wrong! It couldn't be real! He didn't make the report!

"You came back here with the urn that carried Sakura's ashes," Tsunade said. "You executed your mission. You gave me the scroll. You killed Sakura."

"NO!" Sasuke yelled, hurling the scroll across the room almost breaking the glass window. "I DIDN'T KILL HER! I WAS WITH HER LAST NIGHT! SHE WAS ALIVE! KAITARO AND I CHANGED HER BANDAGES! **SHE WAS BREATHING!**"

Tsunade just frowned at him. "You came back here with her ashes!" she yelled back. "You buried her two months ago! You couldn't take her corpse here so you burned it and kept her ashes in an urn that we all mourned for!"

Sasuke felt his heart scream, his chest constrict…everything in his body grow weak.

He shook his head, his vision blurring. He was feeling dizzy…nauseous, furious! Tsunade was lying! THEY WERE ALL LYING!

"If I killed her, why are you still treating me like I didn't just murder your apprentice?" he asked, keeping his voice composed. "Why is Naruto still friendly with me?"

Tsunade stared at him for a moment. "She asked to be murdered, in case you didn't catch that part of your mission right," she answered. "And Naruto's not one to keep a grudge. You of all people should know that."

"Preposterous!" Sasuke snarled. "YOU'RE LYING! I WOULDN'T KILL SAKURA!"

Tsunade raised a brow at him. "Why wouldn't you?"

Sasuke froze.

Why…Why wouldn't he kill Sakura? Why…Why **would **he? Even if it was part of his goddamn mission, he wouldn't do it! …But why..? Why wouldn't he do it? Even if it was part of his mission, why wouldn't he do it?

Sasuke shook his head, feeling angry, depressed and baffled. He took a step back, his hand trying to reach for the door.

"You're Uchiha Sasuke," Tsunade said. "You execute missions perfectly. And your mission included killing Sakura. She isn't your team mate anymore. And she held the scroll that you're supposed to take back here. Why wouldn't you kill her?"

Sasuke stared at the Hokage – his hands trembling, his heart pounding painfully against his chest, his ears ringing, his head suddenly spinning.

He quickly turned away, slammed the door open and ran out of the office…out of the building…

* * *

><p>"Sasuke-kun!" he heard Ino call from behind him. He stopped.<p>

Ino was Sakura's best friend. Did she hate him? If he murdered Sakura, she should hate him!

He turned to look at her and stiffened at the sight of a miserable-looking Ino. There were deep shades of grey under her red eyes. She had lost quite a lot of weight and she looked…sickly.

"Did…Did she suffer?" Ino asked softly, shakily...weakly.

Sasuke froze.

"Did Sakura suffer?" she asked, taking his hand. "Please, I just want to know! Was she happy at least when she left? Did she say anything about me?"

Sasuke wanted to yell at her – tell her he didn't know what on earth she was asking him and tell her he didn't murder Sakura! But Ino's pleading eyes…

"Ino," he suddenly heard Shikamaru call. He was walking toward them with a grim expression on his face. He sighed as he pulled Ino's hands away from Sasuke's hand. "Come on," he told her softly. "Let's go home."

"NO!" Ino snapped at him. "Let go of me! I want to talk to him!"

Shikamaru looked up at Sasuke. "Sorry," he said. "I know this is troublesome." He then turned to look at Ino again, listening to her rants and screams about how she wanted to stay and just ask how Sakura felt when she died, if she wanted to at least say goodbye to Ino, if she even wanted to get back home to Konoha... When tears began to slide down her cheeks, Shikamaru pulled her tightly against his chest. "It's alright," he whispered through her blonde hair. "Let's just go home now. We'll talk to him about her later. Let's eat lunch first, alright?"

Sasuke watched Shikamaru walk away with a sobbing Ino in his arms. Ino didn't hate Sasuke. But she believed he killed Sakura.

Sasuke cursed and ran to the only place he knew would give him the answers. He soon found himself in the Konoha cemetery, staring at a tombstone. He felt sparks burn his veins, draining him of every strength and chakra that kept him from breaking down.

Sasuke read the name on the tombstone, trying to decode it several times to understand what the letters stood for. His brain just didn't want to acknowledge what they meant, and his body felt too weak and heavy to keep him from standing shakily on the ground.

"You don't have to blame yourself," Kakashi said suddenly standing behind him.

Sasuke turned to look at his former teacher – his dark eyes still wide and reflecting utter confusion.

Kakashi kept his eyes on the tombstone. "We understand," he said, crouching slightly to place a bouquet of Maiden Lily flowers on the grave. "We know this is who you really are."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

Kakashi looked at him. "You're an Uchiha," he answered. "You care for nothing but your clan. And since you're the only remaining Uchiha, you care for nothing but yourself."

Sasuke felt his heart contort, his chest constrict painfully and his limbs tremble. "I-I don't… I d-didn't… I wouldn't kill her!"

"You just did," Kakashi said he said looking back at the tombstone. "Don't you remember? It's all in your report."

"I DIDN'T WRITE THAT REPORT!" Sasuke snapped. "SOMEONE ELSE WROTE IT! AN IMPOSTER! IT'S NOT ME! I…I could save her… I COULD SAVE HER! I WOULDN'T KILL HER BECAUSE I COULD SAVE HER!"

"Sasuke-kun," he suddenly heard Sakura's voice call from behind him.

Sasuke's head snapped and turned to see her. He was right! He didn't kill her! She was there – right in front of him, dressed in her pale beige kimono. She was looking sadly at him, her feet sinking in the snow.

…Snow? Sasuke gasped. He was no longer in the cemetery. He was in the woods of Nanashi village – the place where Sakura got the cursed disease that left her weak and in agony…the village where Yoake ruled as he pleased…the place where he-

"I have no use for weaklings like you," he heard his voice say.

Sasuke stiffened, chills creeping up his spine. The voice came from behind him. He turned his head and saw himself – blood-thirsty mangekyou eyes watching Sakura, a maniacal smile on his face…a katana in hand.

…The imposter.

Sasuke suddenly couldn't move his legs. It was as if the icy ground had sucked his feet in place.

Sasuke anxiously turned to look at Sakura again. "RUN! He'll kill you!"

But Sakura just smiled sadly at him. "I see," she said.

"SAKURA! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Sasuke angrily yelled. His ears were ringing. His heart was slamming against his chest at great speeds, attempting to escape what was about to happen. "THAT'S NOT ME! **RUN**!"

"Really?" Sasuke heard the imposter's voice whisper in his ears.

He stiffened. Sakura just kept her pale green eyes on him.

Sasuke clenched his trembling fists. He turned his head and glared coldly at the imposter smiling menacingly at him.

The imposter chuckled. "Still believe you're innocent?" he asked.

"I'll **kill** you," Sasuke snarled.

The imposter burst into laughter. "If you're **really** innocent," he began. "Why do you have her blood on your hands?"

Sasuke stared confused at him. He looked down at his hands and realized it was indeed full of blood. Memories quickly began to flood his thoughts - images of him looking at Sakura, feeling his lips smirk evilly at her...images of Sakura-NO! **HIM**! Images of him attacking Sakura with a katana, stabbing her in the torso, spilling blood on his hand, Sakura's muted wince ringing in his ears as her green teary eyes look grievingly up at him. He remembered twisting the sword, severing her insides, before pulling it out of her torso. He watched her body fall down on the white snowy ground, casting growing red shadows at his feet.

He watched her gasp - await death's final call. Then he kneeled down by her side, angled the blade of the katana against her trembling neck...and slit...her throat, spilling blood down on the ground.

A scream echoed in the darkness. Sasuke shut his eyes, trying to shut the memory away.

He didn't do it...HE COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT!

He opened his eyes and looked at where Sakura stood to reassure himself that it didn't happen, only to see Sakura's bloody corpse on the ground. Pain surged into his chest, spreading into his veins, sucking air from his lungs and strength from his limbs.

"S-sa-" he breathlessly called. "Sak-kur-ra..?" He fell down on his knees – tears sliding down his cheeks. "Sakura…"

"Yes," the imposter said behind him. "She was weak anyway. She wasn't meant to live from the beginning. She wasn't strong, she was wasn't special…The only thing she could boast about is her chakra control. But any medic nin can do what **she** can do. She's a disgrace to the ninja world. Konoha wouldn't need her. **You** wouldn't need her. Why keep her alive?"

Sasuke shakily clenched his fists, his nails digging painfully into his flesh. "You killed her," he whispered, aversion tinting every word.

"No," the imposter said leaning down to whisper the next words into Sasuke's ears. "**You** killed her. This is who you really are. This is what makes you a **strong** ninja. And your next victim will be **all** of Konoha."

* * *

><p>Sasuke quickly sat up, snapping his eyes open and gasping for breath. He could feel sweat slide down his forehead as his eyes slowly adjusted themselves to the dim light in a private room of Kaitaro's clinic.<p>

No, he wasn't in Konoha. Sasuke looked around and confirmed that he was in the room where they kept Sakura in while she lay unconscious. He was sitting by the bed and perhaps he fell asleep slumped on her side.

His eyes looked down at Sakura's calm and sleeping form. His chest was still sore, his heartbeat still frantic and doing its best to calm down.

It was a dream. A horrible dream…A nightmare.

Sasuke sighed and rubbed his shaky hands on his face. It was like the worst nightmare he had ever had in his life. It felt so much more horrifying and heartbreaking than those dreams he had with Itachi, his family's corpse, Naruto's mocking face, or Madara's threats. It seemed like the more things became complicated in the mission, the more his bed dreams turned into horrific nightmares.

He took a deep breath and stood up. There should be a toilet down the hall.

Sasuke checked Sakura's pulse one last time. He smiled at the thumping rhythm underneath his fingertips. Sakura was alive. He didn't kill her.

But Kaitaro's words suddenly rang in his ears.

"_Sakura wanted a ninja sent here, not to help her in her work. She wanted a ninja who was strong enough to kill her before she died a horrible death."_

Sasuke looked grimly at Sakura. The doctor was right. She didn't deserve to suffer that way.

He slowly placed his hand on her neck. He wrapped his fingers around it, feeling the pulsating rhythm spread to his palm. He then tightened his hold, digging his fingers into her throat – feeling the walls of her air passage. He kept his eyes on her sleeping face. Memories of her smile, of her frown, of her angered expression and antics with Naruto, of her caring actions toward him, and of her voice when she called him 'Sasuke-kun' began to flood his thoughts. His hand trembled and suddenly felt weak. His vision began to blur.

Sasuke cursed, pulling his hand away from her neck and burying his head into the crook of her neck. He bit his lips and quietly sobbed, letting his tears fall on her kimono.

How did he even try to strangle her before? How did he get the guts to kill her in the past? His anger for Konoha…for the people who oppressed his clan and forced his brother to slaughter his loved ones… In his stay in Konoha, he realized that the people who had done his family wrong were gone. Those who remained had learned their lesson. The village had been striving to avoid the mistakes that had brought people harm.

Konoha was a better village. And with the generation of the Rookie 9 slowly taking over the pillars that support the village, Sasuke was sure Konoha would continue to become a safe place for all its citizens…even for Sasuke and perhaps, for the next Uchiha generation.

Sasuke looked up at Sakura. He wiped his moist eyes and gently touched her pale cheek.

…And even for the next generation of Haruno's – Sakura's future children and grandchildren.

Sasuke took a deep breath and stood up. He took one last glance at Sakura before he walked out the door, shutting it behind him.

"Had a bad dream?" he heard a voice echo from the hall.

He turned his head and glared coldly at the smiling Yoake in front of him.

Yoake watched Sasuke's dark eyes turn a shade of blood, and snickered. "You **do** have quite an interesting pair of eyes," he said.

Sasuke was about to set Yoake's white robe into flames when Yoake held his hands up.

"I'm not here to hurt Haruno-san," Yoake said. "I merely want to talk to you…about a rumour I heard in Konoha."

"Hn," Sasuke muttered, firmly decided on showing Yoake his disinterest.

"I heard about a medic nin who did an unknown technique to a former criminal," Yoake began.

Sasuke turned away and held the door knob, thinking staying beside Sakura was better than listening to the pompous liar. It wasn't wise to fight him then and there anyway. Kaitaro and Keiko were just somewhere in the house.

"The medic nin controlled the former criminal's chakra usage by putting a limiting seal on the core of his chakra circulatory system," Yoake said.

Sasuke opened the door and stepped his right foot into the room.

"The medic nin also took away **some** of the criminal's emotions to the point where the criminal only felt **numbness in his chest** when he was supposed to feel upset or angry," Yoake said, proudly watching Sasuke stiffen.

…Numbness in the chest...when upset…and angry…

Sasuke suddenly couldn't move. He was sure Yoake was trying to tell him a lie about Sakura. Yoake was trying to lure him into some trap and…numbness in the chest… No medic in Konoha could tell him why he felt numbness in his chest when he felt upset or angry…

Yoake smirked. "Tell me, Uchiha-san," he said. "You haven't, by any chance, ever felt numbness in your chest when you feel upset, yes?"


	45. Chapter 45

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll.' _^ v ^

_Aww...Thanks _**Lilac** **Uchiha**! _Glad you like my Ghost Hunt fanfics too! _

_I see a lot of reviews about Sasuke's dream on the last chapter. I got all of you there! Haha!  
><em>

_Anyway, here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you think about it!  
><em>

* * *

><p>Sakura slowly opened her eyes.<p>

Everything was dark.

She scratched her eyes and tried to adjust her vision to the darkness.

"Sakura," she heard a familiar voice call from behind her.

She stiffened and turned to look at the owner of the voice. "Jiro-kun," she greeted.

Jirotaiku's face was grim. He stood stiffly - his eyes glaring at Sakura.

"Hey," Sakura said smiling at him. "It's been a while."

Then she was locked in a tight embrace - Jirotaiku's breath tickling her neck.

Sakura stiffened. "J-Jiro-"

"Don't leave," he said. "At least wait for me."

Sakura sighed. "If I'm here," she began. "That means I survived the fire. Someone saved me...right?"

Jirotaiku leaned away and looked at Sakura's face.

"You think Uchiha saved you?" he asked.

Sakura looked away. "If he did...he...deserves to hear the truth from me more than...he already does."

Jirotaiku sighed. "As long as he doesn't kill you," he said.

Sakura smirked. "You know," she said. "These past few days I...I really think he's...changed."

_"Wait for me," Sasuke said tightening his hold on her hand. "Stay alive enough to ingest the cure until I come back."_

_"I'll be back in no time. I'll find the cure. You'll be okay. You won't be in pain anymore, and we'll both go back to Konoha."_

Sakura smiled. "I'll wake up," she said. "I'll tell him everything."

Jirotaiku let her go. "If he's really changed," he said. "I don't have to worry about anything." He smiled and gently held her cheek. "I'll see you in Konoha."

* * *

><p>"I presume you know my great grandfather, Houren," Yoake said smiling confidently at Sasuke.<p>

Sasuke stepped away from the door and kept his cold eyes on Yoake. Something inside him was telling him to shut his ears and leave Yoake in the hallway. But a part of him wanted to hear what his enemy was about to say.

"And you know about our…share of what you call bloodline limit," Yoake said. "Though I doubt it could really be called as one. After all, we are of a different breed."

"Hn," Sasuke muttered, watching Yoake carefully.

Yoake smiled. "And our gift can be, to some extent, learned."

Sasuke stiffened.

The traits that Houren passed on to Keiko could be learned? Well, the idea of learning how to utilize the chakra of things around you, instead of using your own seemed possible to learn. If you had great chakra control skills you might be able to-

Sasuke took a deep breath.

Sakura had perfect chakra control. Could she have learned some techniques from Houren?

_"You were protecting her?"_

_Houren shrugged his shoulders. "She impressed me," he said._

"You see, it's not just the chakra of trees, or animals, or non-living elements that we can harness and use for our own," Yoake began. "We can also use and command the chakra of people around us."

_"I am an expert in pulling someone else's chakra to be my own, just as I am an expert in pulling my own chakra out so it can be used by another person."_

"For example," Yoake said. "I can send some of my chakra to you to heal you, just as I can pull your chakra to heal myself. I understand that some ninjas like you can do that. But my clan and I can do…**more. **Like pull some of your memories away – memories that affect how your body responds to certain body stimuli and changes in hormone levels."

Yoake began to pace casually around his place in the hall – his eyes calmly looking at the walls. "I can, for example, take away some of the memories your brain has that governs how your body should respond when your finger is pricked with a needle," he said. "If I do that, and you prick your finger with a needle, your body will feel confused as to how it should involuntarily respond to it."

Yoake then stopped and looked at Sasuke. "Your instant response to being pricked would then be," he said.

"…Numbness," Sasuke breathlessly answered.

"Correct," Yoake said. "Now those memories don't always have to be involved with how your body responds to experiences such as being pricked, being burned, or being physically hurt. It can also involve responses to changes in one's state of mind like emotional changes."

Sasuke felt his heartbeat begin to speed up. He swallowed, suddenly feeling a huge lump clogged inside his throat.

He somehow felt…afraid…of what he was about to learn…

"For example," Yoake said looking at the walls again. "I can take away some of your brain's memories about how to respond to the emotion called, 'anger.'When a person gets angry, his or her body releases hormones like adrenaline which makes you do things you can't normally do. Physiological responses also happen, such as increase in heart rate – a preparation for active body movement, and increase in blood flow to the limbs like the hands – a preparation for the body to hurl a punch at an enemy."

"If I take away the memory concerning those responses to anger," Yoake continued. "Your mind will tell your body you are angry, but your body will not respond to it the way it should. Your body may not secrete enough hormones to make you release your anger; your chest won't hurt as it does when you're mad…" He then looked at Sasuke. "You might just end up feeling…nothing. Numb."

Sasuke glared at him. "Why are you telling me this?"

Yoake smiled. "I did my homework, you see," he said. "I heard about how two years ago, a great ninja war ended with a battle between two powerful Konoha ninjas."

Sasuke watched Yoake put his arms behind him.

"One of them was a descendant of a clan that was said to have mystic red eyes," Yoake said. "The other was a keeper of a fox demon. According to what I heard, the fight ended with both of them falling unconscious on the ground. The two of them were severely wounded, but the ninja with the fox demon proved to have had the best chance of living because of the demon dwelling inside him. The other ninja was declared dead by the medic ninjas who examined him."

Sasuke clenched his fists.

It couldn't be true. No one in Konoha told him about those facts. Yoake was lying! Sasuke didn't die in that battle. He and Naruto both fell into a coma!

"Then a medic nin, who was said to have grown up with the two ninjas, examined the said corpse," Yoake said.

Sasuke's eyes went wide.

…Sakura?

"And the dead ninja, was declared alive and merely in a coma," Yoake said. "Quite impossible, isn't it? Bringing a dead man back to life? …But not for my clan, oh no. That was exactly how my great grandfather Houren revived my great grandmother Keiko. Familiar with the story..?"

Sasuke's limbs were trembling. Sweat was sliding down his forehead. His chest was in pain…in terrible pain as his angry heartbeat rang in his ears.

"You're lying," Sasuke hissed.

Yoake raised his hands. "I'm not saying I'm not," he said. "That's why I'm here to confirm if it's true. I find it hard to believe that anyone from Konoha would have known the technique that was made outside our realm. My great grandfather might have gone here and there, but he's not one to teach some random person, much less a ninja, techniques that could destroy humanity. The very reason why he and his kind lived away from humans is because they don't want their knowledge to be used against humans."

"You've answered your question," Sasuke said.

"Have I?" Yoake asked. "I feel like I haven't. After all, that ninja still lives as Uchiha Sasuke."

"You're not making sense," Sasuke spat. "One minute you're boasting about your ability to steal people's memories, another minute your accussing some ninja about knowing the technique you have for bringing peopleback to life!"

Yoake chuckled. "My apologies for the confusion," he said. "I just thought that perhaps as Uchiha Sasuke was being revived, some of his memories were also taken away from him. It was just odd that after waking up, Uchiha Sasuke didn't try to destroy Konoha again after all those betrayals and tragedies of the village that led to his family's demise."

Sasuke froze.

"Isn't it odd that after losing one fight," Yoake whispered. "He would stop…fighting?"

Sasuke glared icily at Yoake.

"I was thinking," Yoake said. "That since he lost the fight, and having the Uchiha clan in Konoha was still a good advantage, they used that technique to keep him under their control - make sure he lives for the sake of the village again and not for Konoha's destruction like he once did."

"I didn't lose," Sasuke said, gritting his teeth.

"Didn't you?" Yoake asked. "Is that what Sakura told you?"

Sasuke glared at Yoake. "You're lucky I don't feel like disturbing sleeping children," he snarled.

Yoake smiled. "Yes, I am in deed," he said.

Sasuke turned away and held the door knob again.

Yoake was a liar. How would he know things about Konoha? How would he know about the Uchiha clan? Itachi? Naruto? Sakura? He claims Sakura knows about his family's secret techniques! Preposterous! He just couldn't believe she uncovered his crimes!

Yoake was a snake and Sasuke will **kill** him one of these days.

"It leaves a mark on the chest you know," Yoake said as Sasuke stepped his foot into the room.

Sasuke paused, unable to keep himself from listening further on what Yoake was about to say.

"A scar-like seal," Yoake continued. "…A sphere, with vein-like symbols stretching out from its centre where a black dot consumes the chakra and memory of anyone who possesses it."

Sasuke scoffed. "Sorry to break your bubble," he said smirking proudly at Yoake. "But I don't have that mark."

"Sure you don't," Yoake said smiling. "If you did, you wouldn't be able to be as strong as you are now. It eats up much of a person's chakra in exchange for keeping the memories away. And it's only visible when the blood of the person who made the seal is smeared on it." Yoake turned away. "You didn't see any mark on your chest when you carried Sakura away from the fire didn't you?"

Sasuke didn't answer. He instead stiffly watched Yoake walk away. He couldn't stop his limbs from trembling. His heart was still pounding loudly against his chest.

Sasuke cursed. He opened the door and walked back into the room.

Why did he even walk out to the hall? Sakura's room had a sink! He could just wash his face there!

Sasuke walked to the sink and looked at his reflection on the mirror fixed above it.

He looked…rattled…worried…frightened.

Sasuke glared at his reflection. Yoake was lying! He had always been a liar! That was why all those people sided with him – he tricked them into believing that Sakura was a villain!

Sasuke washed his hands and face. He took several deep breaths to calm himself before he walked back to his chair.

It was then that he noticed the blood-stained journal Sakura kept in her kimono when he took her out of the fire.

Sasuke walked to the end table where it lay beside the dim lampshade. He remembered Kaitaro tracing its cover when they spoke about the reason why he was sent there. And he remembered reading something in it that wasn't written by Sakura.

Sasuke picked the journal up, forgetting how wet his hands were. The blood had stained his hands when he turned the page. His fingers left blood-stained prints on the paper.

"Damn it," Sasuke hissed, putting the journal down on the table and running to the sink to wash his hands.

Just as he was about to run the water on his red palms, he remembered what Yoake told him…

_"…It's only visible when the blood of the person who made the seal is smeared on it. You didn't see any mark on your chest when you carried Sakura away from the fire didn't you?"_

Sasuke looked at his reflection.

No, he didn't see any mark because his kimono shielded his chest from the blood on Sakura's body.

He looked down at his blood-stained hands.

It was idiotic…impossible! Yoake was a liar! There was no way Sakura would do it. Why would she? How would she?

Sasuke washed one of his hands. He used the clean hand to slightly open his kimono. He saw the scar on his chest – the only thing that told him he almost died two years ago.

He placed the blood-stained hand on his chest, the red stain smearing on the scar.

Sasuke sighed in relief.

Nothing happened. It was just stained with blood.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Of course, Yoake was lying. He was a liar!

Sasuke turned away from the mirror, looking for a tissue paper or cloth to wipe the stain on his chest off. He tugged top of his kimono off with his clean hand to keep it away from the stain.

Then his eyes fell on the centipede-like scar on his chest…

Sasuke stiffened.

The centipede didn't look like a centipede at all – it looked like a curved vein. It had grown branches…clones that stretched out from a dot…

Sasuke turned to see his reflection on the mirror.

On his chest was a circle with vein-like markings spreading out from a small black circle situated at its center – just like Yoake said. The marks were all in a faint shade of blood…Sakura's blood.

Sasuke felt something inside him crack.

Konoha kept him alive in a jail cell...With thick iron cuffs...underneath the village...with Anbu guards he could have easily...slain...

Tsunade...Naruto...Kakashi...Shikamaru...Neji...Sakura...Konoha...

* * *

><p>"What did you do?" Akio asked as he anxiously met Yoake outside the gates of Kaitaro's house.<p>

Yoake smiled at him. "I just had a little chitchat with Sasuke-san," he said.

Akio's eyes went wide. "Y-You told him...EVERYTHING?" he asked. "Wouldn't that be suicide?"

Yoake chuckled. "Oh come now, Akio," he said. "I was just trying to be a good friend. And besides, a little lie here and there wouldn't hurt."

Akio sighed in relief and smiled. "You scared me there."

Yoake smiled. "Nah," he said. "You're just too dim witted to think about things that far. Go and call the guards. I have a feeling we'll be having an arrest later in the morning."


	46. Chapter 46

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing "Scroll" _^ v ^

_Lots of hate for Yoake, poor thing. _

_Anyway, here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you think about it! _* v *

* * *

><p>Sasuke sat on the chair – eyes fixed at Sakura's pale limp hand on the bed.<p>

His clenched hands were still trembling, his head swirling with memories, probabilities and assumptions about what had happened, what was going on, and what was going to happen.

He couldn't believe that Yoake told him the truth. And yet he couldn't find any concrete evidence that Yoake was lying.

The seal on his chest that hadn't vanished through the night still left him shocked and scared, doubting at everything he had concluded about himself, about Konoha, and even about Sakura.

Konoha still figured that having an Uchiha in the village was an asset to the image it was keeping. So it ordered Sakura to keep him alive. Knowing Sasuke's sentiments toward the village, Konoha ordered Sakura to suppress Sasuke's skills and memories – his **reasons** for vengeance and his **strength** to defeat his enemies.

It all made sense!

Konoha kept him in a jail cell until they were sure that he wouldn't do any harm against the people of the village. They gave him A-rank missions with Genin ninjas as punishment for the things he did against Konoha – to shame him, the only remaining Uchiha.

But in truth, they gave him those missions to test how loyal he was to the village after what Sakura had done to him. And he passed them all with flying collars. They might have been laughing behind his back when he felt soft toward those Genin ninjas.

But Sakura cared for him for so long in his jail cell! She gave him food, attended to his wounds-

Sasuke winced, his hands clasping his head tightly.

What if she was there because it was part of Konoha's plot against him? What if she was slipping hypnotic pills in his food, injecting him hallucinogens when he was sleeping, and testing him in her consistent silence?

Sakura betrayed him.

Naruto…Kakashi…Could they have known?

Sakura said Kakashi knew where she was. Maybe he also knew about Konoha's plot! Maybe those times that he didn't act like himself, were also part of the tests for Sasuke! Kakashi wanted to see Sasuke's reaction…if Sasuke would be soft enough to worry...If Sasuke would be **fooled**.

But what if Kakashi really **was** upset in those times? What if he didn't like what Konoha was doing?

AND WHAT IF HE DID? It was most likely that he did. He wanted to kill Sasuke too! He didn't want anyone else wielding a sharingan…THAT POMPOUS!

Naruto…he couldn't have known. The idiot loser can't lie for his damned life. He didn't know. He didn't betray Sasuke. But if he knew about what Konoha was doing, he would **still** side with Konoha. Why?

BECAUSE BEING HOKAGE WAS MORE IMPORTANT TO HIM!

Sasuke would actually believe that Naruto saw him as his best friend? A brother..? HA! When it would come to choosing between Sasuke and being Hokage, he would choose becoming a Hokage! He had always wanted to be a Hokage! He had always wanted to be **stronger** than Uchiha Sasuke!

He thinks becoming Hokage means being stronger than an Uchiha? HA! **NO ONE** can be stronger than an Uchiha. Naruto **will never **be stronger than Sasuke!

Tsunade…She was behind it. SHE WAS BEHIND IT ALL! Shikamaru..? HE WAS PART OF THE PLAN! Neji..? HE WANTED SASUKE TO BOW TO THE HYUUGA CLAN! Ino..? SHE FAKED EVERYTHING, JUST LIKE HER TRAITOR FIANCE. The children..? PAWNS! STUPID PAWNS IN THE VILLAGE'S GAME!

…That's why…that's why…

Sasuke whimpered, feeling his head throb, his chest twist and his life turn upside down.

"S-ke…" he suddenly heard Sakura whisper.

He opened his eyes and looked at her face. It was only then that he noticed the early morning light touching the room.

He had stayed awake for the rest of the evening…until dawn…thinking about so many things he didn't want to think about anymore.

Sasuke found himself feeling excitement in his veins. He stood up, hovering over Sakura – hoping she would open her gren eyes again…

"Sakura," he mumbled, watching her eyelids tremble.

She was trying to wake up.

Should he call the doctor? Should he start detaching the nasal canula? Should he get her a glass of water?

Sakura slowly lifted her eyelids…wincing at the sudden burst of light in her eyes.

She felt Sasuke's warm fingers brushing her forehead.

It felt good, feeling him there close to her side.

She opened her eyes again, the blur of her vision slowly clearing up to see Sasuke's worried face.

Sasuke sighed in relief.

She was okay.

Sakura smiled. "Sa-" Then her eyes caught sight of the faint mark on his chest – the mark that could only be revealed by her blood.

Sasuke watched Sakura gasp and stiffen at the sight of the mark on his chest.

Confusion, anger, disappointment, pain surged through his veins.

"You…You know this," he whispered.

Tears ran down Sakura's cheeks.

"You know this," Sasuke hissed, his eyes glaring coldly at Sakura.

"I…can explain," Sakura breathlessly said, reaching her hand out to touch him.

Sasuke stepped away, kicking his chair across the room. "You made this," Sasuke said, his chest heaving deep quick breaths – his heart beating frightfully for its life. "YOU **MADE** THIS!"

"Yes," Sakura said, forcing herself to sit up. "I…d-id…" She winced, the canula tube inside her throat making it difficult for her to speak.

Sasuke stared wide-eyed at Sakura.

It was true. What Yoake said was true. **What Sasuke thought about Konoha was true**.

"P-plea-se," Sakura said, reaching her hand out to touch him. "I c-can exp-plain…"

But Sasuke only growled in anger, his hand locking tightly around Sakura's throat.

Sakura choked, feeling his fingers squeezing her air passage…gradually sending her to her death.

She was right. Sasuke didn't change. And she was a fool to hope that in the course of two years he could actually start to live for himself and not just for the family that he lost...that he would realize the new family he was in, and appreciate the people who still love and care for him…realize that his life could be used for more than just vengeance.

Her tears streamed down his fingers.

"Traitor," Sasuke hissed as his Mangekyou Sharingan eyes burned with fury. "You betrayed me…Just like Konoha did to my family… **TRAITORS**! YOU DESERVE TO DIE!"

Sakura's vision was waning. Darkness was devouring everything around her. She could feel her lungs frantically heaving for air and her throat painfully being squeezed to block the oxygen tube running down from her nose.

This was it. She had known this would happen. Her only mistake was hoping that she would somehow escape it.

Sasuke watched Sakura's pale face turn a shade of purple – the raging thumping pulse underneath his fingers begin to fade.

And as Sakura tried to breathe in one last breath, Sasuke let her go, dropping her down on the bed.

He watched Sakura cough and try to regain her breath, while his hands trembled and sweat slid down his forehead. He tried to hold her neck again…to **kill** her! But his hands…just trembled, disobeying his raging thoughts.

He saw the tears slide down Sakura's face as she slumped coughing on the bed.

An image of Sakura, dead and bloody in his arms, suddenly flashed in his mind. It made his body feel rigid, his heart stop, his breathing…

"I…j-ust wan-t-ted," Sakura whispered. "…Y-you to f-feel…h-how it…is to…live…in t-the pre-sent…for…y-your fu-t-ture… G-give you…a-n-nother ch-chance…t-to live…to r-really...l-live..."

Sakura felt Sasuke's hands gently brush her cheek. She shakily looked up at him, hoping he understood.

She stiffened, seeing Sasuke smiling warmly at her.

"I'm not falling for your lies, weakling," he whispered. "I just realized that killing you right now is too…**humane** for you." He leaned closer to Sakura, his lips a breath away from her own. "I will instead leave you to die by your illness. I will let you face the horrible death you fear to face. And don't you worry. I will make sure **everyone** in Konoha dies the same way you do."

She gasped as his warm smile warped into a maniacal grin.

* * *

><p>Laughter…Loud laughter began to fill the room.<p>

Kaitaro and Houren watched Sasuke walk out the hallway, laughing, with the blood-stained journal in his hand. They watched him head to the main door.

"Is there…really nothing we can do?" Kaitaro asked his grand father.

They stood by the door of Keiko's room where the child slept peacefully on a futon. Beside her was the cup of tea that Kaitaro gave her to make sure she slept peacefully that evening.

"There is no point in arguing with a furious deranged maniac," Houren said watching Sasuke grimly as the ninja disappeard into an intersection on the other end of the hall.

They soon saw flanks of guards marching down the hallway and into Sakura's room. Behind them walked a smiling Yoake.

"Lovely morning, great grand father," Yoake greeted Houren as he approached them. Akio, who was walking behind him, proceeded to walk into Sakura's room. "Dr. Kaitaro," he said nodding toward the doctor. "I hope you forgive our intrusion."

"It's not like there's anything we can do to stop you," Houren said, looking bored at his great grandson.

Yoake chuckled. "Finally realized that, huh?"

Houren shrugged his shoulders.

"I hope we're not disturbing Keiko-chan's sleep," Yoake said.

"We made sure she doesn't get disturbed," Houren answered before Kaitaro could reply.

Yoake nodded. "Oh well," he said. "We'll be off to the precinct. We have a criminal to charge." He then turned away and walked to Sakura's room. "By the way," he said turning to look at Houren. "What was that you predicted? I would die by Sakura's hand?" he mockingly asked.

Houren's face turned grim as Yoake laughed and turned to look away.

"You predicted wrongly?" Kaitaro asked.

"No," Houren said. "I predicted that Yoake will die because of Sakura, not that he would die by Sakura's hand. There's…a difference."

Kaitaro looked confused at Houren. He then heard soldiers walking out of Sakura's room. He turned to see what was going on and saw the soldiers walking out with Sakura. She walked out of the room, flanked by two guards. Her hands were chained and her bare feet walked against the cold wooden floor.

"Wait!" Kaitaro called running to stop the soldiers. "She's not well yet!"

Sakura turned to look at him and smiled.

He froze, seeing her watery pale green eyes. "Thank you," she whispered. "I'm good."

"Otou-san..?" He suddenly heard Keiko's voice echo from his daughter's bedroom. He looked back at the open bedroom door. Houren wasn't there anymore.

"Go to her," Sakura said.

Kaitaro looked anxiously at Sakura. He didn't want to leave her.

Sakura chuckled. "Go," she said. "She might see me."

Kaitaro sighed and sadly nodded his head. He turned away from Sakura with a heavy heart and heard their footsteps as they marched out of the house.

He walked to Keiko's bedroom, unsure of what to tell his daughter when she asked about Sakura. But as he reached the door, he saw Keiko still sleeping soundly on the futon.

"What the…" Kaitaro quickly looked out at the window. "What are you planning?" he mumbled to the wind.

* * *

><p>Sasuke leaped from one tree branch to another, anger filling his thoughts – plans on how to infect Konoha with the disease assembling in his mind.<p>

Konoha will pay for betraying him…for making a fool of Uchiha Sasuke…for ridiculing the Uchiha clan.

His blood-red eyes looked sharply at his surroundings, ready to burn anyone who got in his way.

"I expected more from you," he suddenly heard Houren's voice echo in the woods as he glided toward the next branch.

Sasuke stopped, landing his feet on a branch. "COWARD!" he shouted – his sharingan seeing nothing but trees around him. "SHOW YOURSELF, LIAR!" he angrily said, glaring coldly at the snow around him.

Houren leaned his head back to touch the icy bark of the tree, his feet on one of its branches.

"For an Uchiha, you're easy to fool," he said, his voice echoing in various directions.

Sasuke cursed, furious at how he couldn't sense Houren. "You're not fooling me!" he yelled.

"No," Houren said. "…Of course not. I've no use for fooling dimwitts."


	47. Chapter 47

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll'! ^ v ^_

_I understand I'm late, and this story needs to get finished soon because the number of chapters is piling up, BIG TIME. _

_Thanks for pointing those out, _**2oatmealcookies**_!_

_Unfortunately _**sasxsak5232**_, I am indeed very busy this week, hence the late upload for this week's chapter. I posted a long chapter though. _^ v ^_ Secrets? Let's see...um...What do you think? ;)_

_Lot's of comments about Sasuke's idiocy, haha!_

_Here is this week's chapter. _

_Disclaimer: This is quite a long chapter. _* v *

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><p>Sasuke scoffed. "That's it," he hissed.<p>

Houren began to hear crackling sounds emanating from where Sasuke was. He leaned his head away from the tree and turned to look behind him.

He saw sparks of electricity flying around a furious Uchiha Sasuke who was glaring at a tree across Houren.

Houren rolled his eyes. "You know I'll just use that against you," he said leaning his head back on the bark of the tree again.

His voice echoed throughout the forest, hiding his location from Sasuke.

"COWARD! FACE ME!" Sasuke shouted, his rage-tinted voice echoing in the woods. "BE A MAN AND FIGHT ME!"

Houren snorted and began to laugh. "Be a man," he said. "You think acting the way you're acting right now is being a man?"

Sasuke tried to listen to the echoes in the forest, trying hard to learn where Houren was.

"Because last time I checked," Houren said. "That's how a **coward** who's lost his battle with fear acts."

Sasuke growled. "SAY THAT TO MY FACE, COWARD!"

Houren looked at Sasuke from the corner of his eyes. "You just can't understand it, do you?" he said. "Can't you hear yourself? You're telling me to show myself to you, because you're **afraid** I'll attack you from where I am."

Sasuke snorted. "You're telling me you won't? HA! You're not fooling me!"

"Again," Houren said. "You're **afraid** I'm lying to you, so you're telling me that I'm not fooling you."

"SHUT UP AND FIGHT ME!"

"What for..?" Houren asked. "What do I get if I fight you? …If I defeat you..? I don't give a **damn** about Uchihas and ninja villages like Konoha. Will your death bring my wife back? …Because if it will, I'll gladly cut your throat at this very moment."

Sasuke gritted his teeth.

Houren was playing with him again…twisting his thoughts with flowery words…**lies**! He won't fall for them anymore though. Uchiha Sasuke is not someone who could be played with by anyone!

Houren sighed, leaning his head on the tree again. "I thought I was the dumbest person in the world when I chose to live here and be with a mortal woman," he said. "But I realized Sakura was more stupid than me because she chose to give up her life for a man who wouldn't give up his life for her."

"**Shut up**," Sasuke hissed.

"She was worse than a man who couldn't learn how to read, count, or write," Houren said. "…Because she fell for the likes of you."

"**SHUT UP**!"

"Because you're afraid to know that she **loves** you?"

"LIAR!"

"I'm not lying and you **know** that."

"NO! YOU'RE LYING! **YOU'RE ALL LYING**!"

"Then even **Yoake** was lying to you!" Houren shouted.

"**SHUT UP!**" Sasuke yelled, his hands clasping his head – eyes shut, his heart beating fast with rage.

"NO! **YOU** SHUT UP!" Houren yelled back. "YOU WANTED TO KNOW THE TRUTH BUT YOU DIDN'T TRY TO FIND IT! YOU **HAD **IT IN YOUR HANDS THE WHOLE TIME BUT YOU CHOSE TO DOUBT EVERYTHING YOU'VE SEEN AND HEARD FROM HER! YOU WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH? I'LL **GIVE** YOU THE TRUTH! THE ONLY REASON THE TRUTH WAS HIDDEN FROM YOU WAS BECAUSE SAKURA DIDN'T WANT TO WOUND YOUR PRECIOUS EGO – THE ONLY THING YOU HAPPEN TO CARE ABOUT IN THIS WORLD!"

Houren's words echoed loudly around Sasuke, each whiff of air repeating every word he said. Sasuke tightened his hold on his throbbing head.

Houren was playing with him. He was attacking him! He was pouring lies inside his head!

Images of him strangling Sakura in the clinic flashed into his mind.

…The feeling of her throat against his palm…The thumping rhythm of her fading pulse underneath his fingers…the warm tears streaming down his hand…The purple shade slowly eating up her pale skin…

…Sakura dead and bloody in his arms.

Sasuke gasped and opened his eyes – his eyes that were switching from sharingan form to its natural form.

Why didn't he kill her? Why did the image of Sakura's bloody corpse have that effect on him? SHE BETRAYED HIM! SHE MADE HIM A PUPPET OF KONOHA – DOING WHAT THE VILLAGE WANTED HIM TO DO!

He thought killing her would be too humane…SHE DESERVED TO DIE THE MOST HORRIBLE DEATH!

…Sakura dead and bloody in his arms.

Sasuke felt his heart skip, his body stiffen, his breathing hitch.

"…YOU **HAD **IT IN YOUR HANDS BUT YOU CHOSE TO DOUBT EVERYTHING YOU'VE SEEN AND HEARD FROM HER!" the winds echoed around him.

Sasuke stared blankly at nowhere as his thoughts rummaged through the images flooding his head.

…The journal!

Sasuke looked down at the journal that he slipped into his belt.

What if it also contained lies?

"…_I didn't even want you here! I wanted Jirotaiku to be here, not you!"_

"_Knowing her condition, I wrote a separate note for the Hokage, asking a ninja named Uchiha Sasuke to be sent here. I slipped the note into the scroll when we realized Sakura could no longer be transported outside the village. She didn't know I sent for you until-"_

Sakura didn't expect Sasuke to be there. She didn't expect Sasuke would get hold of the journal. So she wouldn't likely write lies on the journal.

What if Houren had already manipulated what it contained? Surely Houren couldn't be **that** powerful. Or could he..?

Houren looked at Sasuke from the branch of the tree. He sensed Sasuke's confusion…doubt…agony…

"One spark," Houren mumbled. "…Just one spark of eagerness, Uchiha…and it will all fall into place."

Sasuke pulled out the journal and stared at the blood stains on its cover – blood stains from Sakura's fresh wounds.

He remembered her face…how she smiled at him in their Genin days…how she always attended to his wounds in their missions…how she confessed her feelings for him, pleaded him to take her with him…how she cried…how she had grown up…how she quietly cared for him in his jail cell…how she acted coldly when he saw her again…how she looked worried…how it felt to hold her close while she was crying…how painful it felt to watch her suffer from her sickness…how she tried to stop him from looking for the Anrui flower…how she thanked him…

…How it felt to hold her cold, bloody corpse…and how it felt to know that she perished because of him…

"_I…j-ust wan-t-ted," Sakura whispered. "…Y-you to f-feel…h-how it…is to…live…in t-the pre-sent…for…y-your fu-t-ture… G-give you…a-n-nother ch-chance…t-to live…"_

Sasuke's eyes turned back into a shade of black. He brushed the tips of his fingers on the blood stains on the journal.

…What if…

"She writes three letters to him **every** freaking day," Sasuke suddenly heard someone say from behind him.

He turned around to see who it was and stiffened at the sight of Houren sitting on the wooden floor of the house Yoake burned in the woods. By the looks of it, Sasuke was back in the livingroom - near the hearth.

In front of Houren, just a few steps away from Sasuke, was a man with hair looking like amber flames. He was clad in a black kimono.

"Jirotaiku..?" Sasuke mumbled.

They didn't seem to sense Sasuke's presence. Houren was busy smirking at Jirotaiku. And Jirotaiku just went on with his ranting.

"Then she uses those letters to start a fire in the hearth when the night falls," Jirotaiku said, clearly annoyed.

Sasuke walked to stand slightly between the two to see what Jirotaiku looked like.

He snorted, noticing Jirotaiku's similarity with Sai. His dark eyes were just somewhat rounder than Sai's.

How could people think Jirotaiku resembled Sasuke?

Jirotaiku was frowning. There was a crease between his eyebrows and his lips were in a pout.

"I mean, it's idiotic!" Jirotaiku exclaimed. "If she's just going to burn it anyway, she shouldn't have written them all in the first place! How many trees were cut for those papers she wrote on? And the ink! Such a waste! I'll never understand why she acts that way toward him after all the things he's done to her."

Houren chuckled. "You're just jealous she's spending that much time on that Uchiha kid."

Sasuke froze.

They were talking about him?

Jirotaiku rolled his eyes. "My point," he said. "Is that she already decided **not** to tell this jerk about the miracle she did to him. But she writes to him about it **all** **the time**. And she burns those letters only to write it again the next day! It's **insane**!"

Houren burst into laughter. "How on earth did you know the contents of those letters if she burns them all?"

"I don't call myself a 'fire god' for nothing," Jirotaiku proudly said.

"So you read Sakura's letters to Sasuke," Houren said. "She is not going to be pleased with you."

Sasuke stared wide-eyed at Houren.

Sakura wrote letters to him?

"As if she'd ever love me back," Jirotaiku sighed, laying his back on the floor. "That Uchiha will strangle her to death and I'll bet she'll still tell him she loves him before she loses her breath."

Sasuke looked down at the flames of the hearth burning between Houren and Jirotaiku. He remembered the last time he tried to strangle her. Sakura didn't even try to fight him back.

"Here," Houren said handing Jirotaiku a notebook – the journal that Sasuke found hidden in Sakura's desk.

Sasuke stared surprised at the clean notebook. Was he seeing a memory?

Jirotaiku sat up and took the notebook and examined it. Its pages were blank. "What's this?" he asked.

"That's a notebook," Houren said. "At least that's what you humans call it."

Jirotaiku smirked at Houren. "You call it something else?"

"A keeper," Houren answered. "It looks like a notebook but it keeps more than just notes. When used properly, it reveals…imprints."

"Fingerprints..?" Jirotaiku asked, raising a brow at Houren.

Houren chuckled. "Imprints – pieces of energy that store images of particular events," he answered. "That book stores the memories concerning the notes written there by its owner."

"Oh," Jirotaiku said staring at the notebook. "…Like those stolen artifacts of yours. I thought you haven't visited your world for a while."

Houren smiled. "We don't buy those in our world," he said. "We make them."

Jirotaiku frowned. "Show off," he spat.

Houren chuckled.

Jirotaiku looked at the notebook again. "So she should keep the letters, huh?" he said sadly.

Houren sighed. "She'll only be wasting more ink and paper if she doesn't," he said.

Jirotaiku frowned. "We can't stop her," he said.

"She loves him," Houren said. "Whether as a friend or as more than that, her need to be honest with him will always be there. And she's here to die. At least give her this chance to clear her conscience before she leaves this earth."

Sasuke froze.

Sakura was there to die? What was going on?

"Oi," Sasuke suddenly heard Jirotaiku say from behind him. He swiftly turned around and froze at the sight of Sakura sitting on the floor behind her desk.

His heart skipped at the sight of her lively pink tresses. That was Sakura! That was the Sakura he had dreamed about ever since he left his jail cell! She was wearing a pale yellow winter kimono. And her skin wasn't pale! Her hands weren't covered with bandages!

She looked up at Jirotaiku, standing beside Sasuke, with her vibrant green-

Wait!

Sasuke looked closely at Sakura's eyes as she raised an elegantly arched brow at Jirotaiku. Her eyes…weren't emerald. They were a slightly pale shade of green.

Was she already ill?

Sasuke noticed the notebook on the table, next to the paper Sakura was busy writing on. Sasuke was sure she was holding an inked brush and not a quill.

Jirotaiku must have thrown the notebook on the table.

"What's this?" she asked him.

"A notebook," Jirotaiku answered. "You flip the page and write on it."

Sakura frowned at Jirotaiku. "I know that," she said. "Why are you giving me this?"

Jirotaiku turned around and headed to the door. "It's better than wasting papers on your love letters."

Sakura stared surprised at Jirotaiku. "Have you been reading my letters?"

Jirotaiku shrugged his shoulders as he looked out at the porch. "I thought you were casting spells on me."

Sasuke swiftly stepped away as a sandal flew quickly toward Jirotaiku, hitting the back of his head.

"OUCH!" Jirotaiku exclaimed, rubbing the spot that the sandal hit. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?"

"What did you see in those letters?" Sakura asked glaring daggers at Jirotaiku.

"NOTHING!"

Sasuke watched another sandal hit the back of Jirotaiku's head.

"OUCH!" he exclaimed, covering his head with his arms. "DAMN IT!"

"**What did you see in those letters?**"

"…YOUR PROCLAMATION OF LOVE FOR UCHIHA SASUKE!" Jirotaiku answered glaring at Sakura. "And your never ending pleas for forgiveness…"

Sasuke stiffly looked at Sakura.

Her face was composed but her eyes…were moist with tears.

She asked…for his forgiveness…

"_I…j-ust wan-t-ted," Sakura whispered. "…Y-you to f-feel…h-how it…is to…live…in t-the pre-sent…for…y-your fu-t-ture… G-give you…a-n-nother ch-chance…t-to live…"_

Jirotaiku sighed loudly and sat down on the floor, scratching his head.

"Come here," Sakura said softly.

"No," Jirotaiku said.

"Jiro-kun, come here," Sakura said.

Sasuke felt something twitch inside him at the sound of the '-kun' in Jirotaiku's name.

"NO," Jirotaiku said. "I'm not going to kill you like that bastard is doing to you!"

Sasuke stared confused at Jirotaiku.

Who's killing Sakura?

Sakura sighed. "I'll just check how bad I hit your head," she said.

It took Jirotaiku a moment before he stood up and stomped his way to Sakura. He sat down across from her, frowning at the desk.

Sakura gently looked at the bruise forming on his head. "Put some ice on it," she said.

Jirotaiku nodded.

"Thank you," Sakura said gently taking the notebook in her hands.

Jirotaiku looked up at Sakura – his eyes searching her face for something Sasuke felt he knew.

Affection! He was looking for any sign that would tell him…Sakura was…in love with him…

"Why do you love him?" Jirotaiku asked.

Sakura looked at him, unfazed by the close distance between their faces.

Sasuke clenched his fists – his heart beating anxiously at the sight of the two looking deep into each other's eyes.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "Why do you love me?" she asked.

Jirotaiku just looked at her for a moment before he sighed and looked away. "He's going to be the death of you."

Sakura smiled. And Sasuke felt hurt at seeing her smiling warmly at Jirotaiku. "He already is," she said.

Sasuke looked away. She was right. He tried to kill her, didn't he? And he left her to die.

But she betrayed him! She made him a toy for Konoha to play with!

"Not if I can help it," Jirotaiku said, glaring at Sakura.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Go do something useful, will you? See how the investigation's doing."

Jirotaiku smirked and headed for the porch.

Then a blinding light, followed by a loud explosion rocked the house.

Sasuke gasped and quickly covered Sakura from the flying debris. More blasts and crashing sounds echoed, shaking the earth.

"DAMN IT!" Sasuke cursed as he tried to shield Sakura. The earth was shaking too forcefully and he was afraid he would end up being thrown away from her.

After another deafening explosion, the earth stilled.

Sasuke slowly opened his eyes and anxiously looked at Sakura.

He froze.

She wasn't there. And in the place of the wooden floor was a familiar patch of cracked earth.

He stiffly stood up, looking around as the smoke around him cleared. Then drops of water fell down on him. He noticed the dark sky…the strong winds…the tall cliff ahead of him.

Sasuke gasped.

He **knew** that place! That was where-

Sasuke turned to look at his side as sounds of panic filled the air. He saw muddy ninjas jumping down from the cliff and running toward two bloody bodies splayed on the ground.

Sasuke slowly walked to the closest cadaver, his heart beating painfully against his chest.

At a distance he could see Naruto's body, surrounded by Chouji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Tenten, Neji, Ino, Sai and Shino. Other high ranking ninjas, including the Hokage, were with them as Neji's cousin checked his pulse and confirmed that he still had a chance of surviving.

On the corpse a few steps away from him were Anbu ninjas with their katanas drawn and ready to strike. Only Sakura and Kakashi were there.

Sasuke smirked.

What did he expect? He tried to kill everyone. There was no reason for them to worry about him. He was a criminal. He deserved to die.

Sasuke saw Sakura lift an unconscious and bloody Uchiha Sasuke in her arms. The medic ninjas around her shook their heads.

Yoake was right. Sasuke died in that final battle. He lost.

Sasuke stepped closer to Sakura. Kakashi was already slumped on the ground – his hands on his face.

Sasuke sighed, seeing the broken limbs and open wounds that he had as he lay on Sakura's arms. They were right. He was too badly wounded to have survived that fight.

He noticed the other ninjas who checked on Naruto look to where Sasuke was. Shikamaru was already a few steps away from one of the Anbu ninjas near Sasuke's corpse.

"You're alive," he heard Sakura whisper.

Sasuke stiffened. He looked down at Sakura and saw her bloody left hand feeling a pulse point somewhere in his neck.

"Get a stretcher!" she yelled at the medic ninjas. "GET A STRETCHER **NOW**!"

The medics nodded stiffly and vanished.

"**DO SOMETHING USEFUL!**" she shouted at the ANBU ninjas that were watching her. "**GET THE WOUNDED!**" They stiffly nodded and vanished as well.

"Sakura," Shikamaru gently said as he stood a few steps away from her, watching her hold the corpse close to her chest.

Neji was walking toward them several paces away. Chouji and the others were also beginning to walk toward the corpse.

Sakura ignored them. She held the lifeless body tight and whispered unintelligible words against his cold forehead.

Then Sasuke saw her hands reach out for a kunai in her holster.

"What the-" Sasuke gasped as Sakura subtly ran the blade down across her chest.

"Sakura!" Kakashi exclaimed, catching a glimpse of what she did upon raising his head. He swiftly grasped her arm, but it was too late.

Blood from the deep open wound on Sakura's chest was already mixing with the blood on Sasuke's open chest.

"SAKURA!" Shikamaru cried, kneeling down beside her and pushing her away to see what she had done.

Sakura ignored him and kept just held Sasuke close to her as her fingers rapidly scribbled blood all over Sasuke's chest.

"STOP IT!" Kakashi shouted, pulling Sakura away from the corpse. When she shakily leaned slightly away, he caught sight of a white light connecting Sakura's newly opened wound to the large open wound on the corpse's chest.

Sasuke froze as he watched the events unfold, like Shikamaru, Kakashi, and a few ANBU ninjas who rushed to the scene did.

The light…the chakra! The chakra quickly healed the open wound – the cut melting into the flesh.

Before the wound closed, Sasuke caught a glimpse of something inside the corpses' chest that began to move.

He gasped as the light disappeared and a seal replaced the wound – a round seal that had rust-hued swirling lines stretching from the center of the circle.

Sasuke, like the others in the scene, watched stunned as the chest of the corpse began to move – its lungs weakly heaving for air. The other deep open wounds on the corpse slowly became shallow.

"HE'S ALIVE!" Sakura shouted pulling herself away from Kakashi's weakened grip on her. She hovered over the corpse, checking its pulse several times and smiled. "He's alive."

"This will **not** be spoken to **anyone else**," Sasuke suddenly heard the Hokage hiss.

He looked up to see the Hokage standing close to the group, glaring at each ninja who witnessed the event…except for Neji who stood shocked several paces away.

"A traveler..?" Sasuke suddenly heard a middle-aged man say from behind him.

He turned to see who it was and saw an old man seated on a boulder in the middle of a dusty, dry, abandoned village. He was draped in muddy rags and his face was full of swelling blisters.

Sakura was examining the blisters – her lively green eyes narrowing at the blood and puss sliding down his cheeks.

"You can say that," she said as she looked down at the man's neck. He had similar lesions around his neck. "I'm on my way home. You're sure you didn't eat or drink anything from this place?"

"Yes," the man said. "I got my food and water from the other village. It's just the air, I think."

Sakura nodded. "Can you close your eyes for me? I'll be trying something to stop the pain you're feeling in your chest."

"Anything to cure me," the man said shutting his eyes and taking deep long ragged breaths.

Sakura placed her hand on the man's chest.

Sasuke watched as green light glowed from the tips of her fingers.

She focused chakra into the man's chest for a long moment.

The man winced. "What-is…th-that?"

"Just relax," Sakura said as she gently pulled her hand away.

Sasuke noticed a black smoke seep out from the man's chest.

The man sighed in relief and with it the fading of the lesions on his skin.

"You can open your eyes now," Sakura said.

The man opened his eyes and looked at Sakura.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Better," the man said smiling at her. "You're a doctor, aren't you? …A travelling doctor and a miracle worker!"

Sakura smiled. "I'm glad you feel better."

"Impressive," said Houren, suddenly standing behind Sakura.

Sakura turned to glare at him. "Is it?" she asked. "You ask me to help you figure out what's wrong with these people, when in truth **you** put them through this illness?"

Houren smirked. "Who is the 'them' you speak of, exactly?"

Sakura stared incredulously at him. "**THEM!**" she yelled, pointing to the man behind her. "This man and the others who-" she said turning to look at the man she healed.

But he was gone.

Sakura stared shocked at the boulder in front of her.

"Who..?" Houren asked.

Sakura glared at him. "Genjutsu," she hissed.

"Not quite," Houren said smiling at her. He took her hand and laid a scroll on her open palm. "A gift," he said. "…For impressing me. And mind you, I am not easily impressed."

Sakura stared confused at Houren. "W-Who…are you? Why are you-"

Houren chuckled and planted a kiss on her forehead. "I am a traveler," he said. "…On my way home. Your village is **that** way," he said pointing to a dense forest several miles from them.

Sakura stiffly turned her head to look at the woods. When she turned to look at Houren again, he was gone. And so was the dusty abandoned village Sasuke was sure they were in. They just found themselves in the middle of an empty field.

Sasuke suddenly heard bone chilling screams of agony echoing behind him.

He turned around and found himself in a white familiar hallway – one of the hallways in the Konoha Hospital.

Sasuke watched Anbu ninjas run toward a room at the end of the hall, and training medic ninjas run frightfully away from the said room.

The he saw Sakura run past him, green eyes filled with anxiety and fear. She headed for the room at the end of the hall.

Sasuke ran to follow her. Screams of pain still echoed from the halls, with crackling sounds of…lightning?

He froze as the door opened.

Sakura stood in front of him, watching a furious Uchiha Sasuke standing on a hospital bed – chest and arms in bandages, hand holding a katana, eyes red, sparks of electricity surrounding him and filling the room.

On the blood-stained floor were Anbu ninjas – dead ones. Some of them had their abdomen slashed open. Others stabbed and a lot of them with slits on their throat.

Sasuke watched a maniac version of himself stare at Sakura. The Sasuke on the bed was the Sasuke who killed Sakura in his dreams.

It was…him.

Sasuke stood beside her. He wanted to pull Sakura away, shield her, push her out the room but…he realized that it had already happened before. And he wouldn't be able to save her even if he dared.

He watched Sakura stiffen.

The Sasuke standing on the bed smirked. "Sakura," he said. "You do love me, don't you?"

Sasuke gasped as the maniac version of himself vanished and flashed in front of her – his face a breath away from Sakura's face.

"I hate to break it to you though," the blood-crazed Sasuke said as he lifted the katana he took from one of the Anbu ninjas he killed. Electric currents crackled as it surrounded the blade.

Sakura gasped.

"I have no use for weaklings like you," he whispered.

"**NOOOO!**" Sasuke yelled as the maniac plunged the sword into Sakura's chest. He watched the tip of the blade slide through her back.

He heard her gasp and choke.

Tears ran down Sasuke's cheeks as he watched the Sakura's killer smirk and burst into laughter. He was about to fall down on his trembling knees when he heard Sakura's voice.

"I-d-do," Sakura said, shakily lifting her hand to touch the blade that pierced her chest.

The maniac Sasuke raised a brow at her.

"I do love you," Sakura said looking straight into Sasuke's eternal mangekyou sharingan. "That's why…"

Sasuke noticed that Sakura was slowly walking toward the deranged Sasuke – the blade sliding further into her chest.

As Sakura's chest touched the hilt of the katana, she placed her blood-stained hand on the confused Sasuke's chest. "That's why…I will l-let you..l-live your life…The way…y-you sh-should have…"

White light sprung from her hand, swallowing Sasuke's chest.

"What are you-"

Sasuke watched the sparks of lightning get sucked into the blinding light – Sakura was using the deranged Sasuke's chakra against him.

So she **did** learn from Houren, but not from Houren himself. It was the scroll that Houren gave her that taught her the techniques she knew.

"You won't be in pain anymore," Sakura said, smiling sadly at the Sasuke in front of her – tears streaming down her face. "For your pain will be my pain. And you will remember none of this."

Sasuke watched the light slowly form a round shape over the deranged one's chest. It burned like flames and engraved on the already existing seal, vein-like lines that stretched out in the air too touch Sakura's chest.

The light also engraved vein-like lines on Sakura's chest, but it was hideous. It wasn't confined in a circle. It was like roots of a tree, growing and spreading all over her chest...abdomen...shoulders...

She winced and cried out in pain as the light vanished into the air.

The Sasuke in front of her fell down unconscious on the tiled floor. Sakura fell on her knees, crying and wincing in pain. She pulled the katana off of her chest and fell weakly down on the floor.

Sasuke knelt down beside her, wanting to stop the bleeding in her chest. The sight of her blood filling the white-tiled floor pained him…scared him. He laid his hand on the pink tresses that were then turning red with blood.

"I'm sorry," he heard her say breathlessly, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry Sasuke."

Sasuke winced.

It was him who tried to kill her – who stabbed her mercilessly with a sword. And yet…**she** was the one apologizing to him.

Sasuke laid his head down on her cheek, tears sliding silently down from his eyes.

"You have betrayed Konoha," he heard a loud authoritative voice say from behind him.

He raised his head and turned around. He found himself in the tribunal hall where he faced his trial and heard his punishment.

Sasuke stood up, seeing all the elders in their usual place – the Hokage on her own seat, scowling. At the place of the accused stood Sakura – hands tied behind her back.

She looked sickly and weak. And sure enough Sasuke spotted the dextrose stand beside her.

Sasuke glared at the elders.

Sakura wasn't well yet. But they put her on trial already!

No one else seemed to be in the room. Sakura tasked to defend herself.

"By letting the remaining Uchiha live," one of the elders said. "You have put Konoha in great danger. You are a traitor!"

"Do you have anything to say for your self?" asked another elder.

Sakura looked bravely at the elders. "I understand your concern," she said. "But I vowed, as a medic nin, to do my best to save lives. What I did was only in obedience to that vow."

The elders snorted. "This is what you teach your student, Tsunade?" an elder shouted.

Tsunade glared at the elder. "A medic nin's duty is to save lives," she said.

"Wouldn't you be saving more lives if you kept him dead?" another elder said. "If you just killed him when you found him in the battlefield, we wouldn't have lost those Anbu ninjas!"

"We shall no longer keep him alive to hear the trial," said another elder. "We shall pass his sentence now – death to Uchiha Sasuke."

"NO!" Sakura shouted frightfully. "Please! Wait-!"

"Your affection to the Uchiha outweighs your devotion to the village," an elder said. "You have proven yourself guilty of treason!"

Sasuke stiffened.

The Hokage stood up and glared at the elders. "She wishes to speak!" she shouted, silencing the murmuring elders. She turned to look at Sakura. "Speak. NOW."

Sakura gathererd her courage and poise again and took a deep breath. "Honourable elders," she said. "You must understand. Uchiha Sasuke did those things because he wanted justice for his family and reform from the village. If he sees this done, he will have no reason to fight against Konoha."

"You DARE make FOOLS of the elders!" shouted one of the elders. They all glared at Sakura, murmurs echoing in the dark hall.

Sakura swallowed hard and closed her eyes.

Sasuke watched her anxiously.

"I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun," she saw her whisper before she raised her head proudly at the elders. "Consider then the benefits of keeping the Uchiha clan in Konoha," she said.

Sasuke and Tsunade stiffened.

"Consider the advantage that Konoha has in having the Hyuuga, the Uchiha, and the Uzumaki on our side," she said. "No village will dare to wage war against us. And no village will dare to look down at our ninjas. Not when we shelter the three most powerful clans in the ninja community."

"You are saying that we should keep him in the village?" one of the elders said. "Employ him as a ninja under Konoha?"

"Yes," Sakura said. "Yes I am."

"You seem to be forgetting something, Haruno Sakura," an elder said. "The blood of the criminal who wanted to destroy Konoha – Uchiha Madara – runs through Uchiha Sasuke's veins. What assurance do you have that he will not turn against us again?"

"If Konoha implements the needed reforms," Sakura said. "He will no longer think of doing so."

The elders scoffed and shook their heads.

"I do not give you my word for it," Sakura said. "I give you my life."

The elders watched her, waiting for her to say more. Tsunade and Sasuke could only stare wide-eyed at her in shock.

"Kill me," she said. "The moment he hurts anyone in the village."

An elder chuckled. "We might as well have you killed now," he said.

Sasuke glared murderously at the elder, forgetting it had no effect on what was happening around him. He wanted to burn them all...watch lightning strikes make their faces explode...

The elders burst into laughter.

"If you really don't think I'll live long," Sakura said. "Why don't you accept my offer? No harm in doing so anyway. The condition is if he **harms** anyone. We can easily heal anyone he harms. "

The elders began to murmur among themselves.

Tsunade glared at Sakura.

Sakura just smiled at her.

"We accept," an elder said, after a few moments of discussion among themselves. "But in exchange for letting him live, you will follow several conditions from us."

Sakura and Sasuke anxiously watched the elders.

"One of which will be," the elder continued. "That you will be executed immediately had any report of being harmed by Uchiha Sasuke reaches our knowledge. Even one slap, Haruno Sakura, will earn you your death."

"**Preposterous!**" Tsunade shouted. "What the hell is wrong with all of you? If we must make a decision, let us postpone this trial and think about the consequences of-"

"I accept," Sakura said.

Tsunade glared at her.

"There you have it, Hokage-sama," an elder said. "We shall submit the conditions for this agreement by tomorrow morning. This trial is dismissed."

When the elders walked out of the hall, Tsunade marched angrily to Sakura who sat herself down evidently feeling weaker after what happened.

"What do you think you were doing?" Tsunade hissed.

"I am saving Sasuke's life," Sakura answered.

"**WHY** on earth were you **DOING** it?"

Sakura looked up at her. "If Naruto was awake and he was here, that's what he would do," she said.

"**WELL YOU'RE NOT NARUTO!**" Tsunade shouted. "**YOU'RE HARUNO SAKURA! YOU'RE MY STUDENT! CAN'T YOU USE YOUR HEAD FOR ONCE? **I can't promise I can get you out of this mess, nor can I promise that I can save you from a death sentence. You know I would have to wage war against those bastards to do it."

"Please just trust me on this," Sakura said smiling at her. "Trust Sasuke."

Tsunade snorted. "Last time you trusted him, he left you alone on a bench," she muttered.

Sakura chuckled. "Well now he'll be dead before he tries to do that to anyone, right?"

Sasuke sighed.

Sakura gave them all the idea to use him as a tool – to make him a puppet of the village, just like what they did to Itachi…to his family…

But he couldn't feel hatred against her anymore, not as much as he could before.

Sasuke suddenly felt a cool breeze touch his back. He turned around and saw Sakura and Kakashi sitting on a tree branch somewhere in the training grounds.

It was dark and the full moon was playing hide and seek with the clouds.

Sasuke found himself standing on a tree branch just behind the two.

"I heard they've moved him underground," Kakashi said.

Sakura sighed and nodded. "It was part of the conditions."

"And you designed his cuffs?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura smirked. "I helped," she said.

"That's one hell of a jutsu you've learned," he said. "Does it…have a side effect of some sort?"

Sakura looked at him. "Why do you ask?"

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders. "Well," he said. "You haven't been sleeping a lot. And you haven't been training or healing anyone. When was the last time you used your chakra?"

Sakura looked away, frowning. "How do you know that?"

Kakashi looked at her. "I've heard rumours," he said. "That, and you have huge eye bags under your eyes."

Sakura glared at Kakashi.

"Are you smiling at me?" Kakashi asked. "Your eyes are smiling."

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"So what's the score?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura took a deep breath and sighed. "Did Sasuke ever talk to you about…nightmares?"

Kakashi eyed her carefully. Sasuke himself looked confused at Sakura.

How would she know about..?

"Why?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura smirked. "I think I know why Sasuke can't stop himself from wanting revenge," she said.

Kakashi sighed and looked away. "So you don't just feel all the negative emotions and feelings he's supposed to feel," he said. "You also get his dreams."

Sasuke stiffened. The dreams…The dreams he had about the murder of his family had in deed been replaced by dreams of Sakura talking to him in his sleep.

Sakura nodded. "It's…scary," she breathlessly said, her shoulders trembling slightly. "I can't believe he survived it for so long. I really can't blame him for hating everyone."

"Does that mean you want to destroy Konoha too?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura smiled and shook her head. "It makes me think I did the right thing," she said. "Keeping him alive."

"And killing yourself," Kakashi muttered. "Are you going to tell him how it works?"

"What for?" Sakura asked. "I doubt he'd feel sorry if he learns that he's killing me whenever he breathes or uses his chakra. He might even just kill me if he learns about what I did."

Sasuke's eyes went wide. He remembered what Sakura did to his corpse when she found it…what she did in the hospital when he woke up…how Sakura was when he found her again…

But what if everything he saw was a lie? What if Houren made everything up?

* * *

><p>"How do you find your clothes?" Yoake asked Sakura as she weakly lifted her head up to face him.<p>

She was confined in the dungeon – chains hanging from the ceiling, gripping her bleeding, bandaged wrists tightly above her head…her muddy blood-stained toes barely touching the ice-cold stone floor. A loose stinky, brown blood-stained robe replaced the kimono she wore in Kaitaro's clinic.

Akio smirked as he leaned his back on the wall near the door, watching Yoake and Sakura talk.

"My apologies," Yoake said. "We rarely get prisoners of your size."

Sakura smirked. "I'm actually amazed you gave me something to wear."

"Oh come now," Yoake said. "Devils like you shouldn't be punished so lightly by getting violated by your guards. That would be too kind even for me."

Sakura chuckled. "So what are you going to do to me?" she asked. "Give me 500 lashings on my back like you did with Jirotaiku? Hang me?"

Yoake smiled. "Tempting, but still too kind considering you're dying already. And I believe I gave Jiro-kun 800 lashings before he fell asleep."

Sakura snorted. "So what are you going to do? Just let your chains hold me hear until death takes me away?"

"No," Yoake said looking down at his long blonde hair. He brushed some of it with the tips of his fingers. "I had to admit you did a lot of good things to my people. So I intend to do you a favour."

Sakura glared at Yoake, knowing well that the "favour" will be far from good.

Yoake stepped closer to Sakura, his grey eyes looking deep into Sakura's pale green eyes.

"So tell me," he said. "What did Sasuke do when he learned about what you did to him?"

Sakura stiffened. She tried not to show the effect of Sasuke's name on her, but her body had already given Yoake enough signs to prove that his statement hit her hard in the gut.

"Aww," Yoake said. "I was really expecting him to thank you for risking your life to save him. After all, doing what you did wasn't something just anyone in the world could do."

"You told him," she hissed. "**What did you tell him?**"

"The truth," Yoake said. "That you put two seals on his chest – the one that transfers your life to him so he could live; and the one that suppressed his insane tendencies so your elders wouldn't want him dead. I thought he would appreciate what you did. But he lashed out, saying you did it because you were trying to use him for something just like Konoha did to his family."

"**Liar**," Sakura hissed, tears slowly filling her pale green eyes.

"What good would lying to a dying woman do to me?" Yoake asked. "It won't do me any good. I actually just want to apologize to you. I thought the reason why you didn't tell him about your sacrifice was because you wanted to be all humble about it. I didn't know it would upset him – wound his ego and think you did all of those to ruin him. I'm sorry, Sakura-san. If I knew about it, I wouldn't have done it."

"You're lying," Sakura said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

But in her heart, she knew. She knew Sasuke wouldn't accept what she did because it all came from a weakling. He didn't want any help from anyone. He believed that Uchihas were supposed to be invinsible. And to realize he owed so much to a weak ninja…

He would find ways to explain how it happened – why someone who wasn't related to him, did all those things for him. He would find ways to think that he was given a second chance only in exchange for something else, like forgetting the crimes that were done by the village against his family.

"_Traitor," Sasuke hissed as his Mangekyou Sharingan eyes burned with fury. "You betrayed me…Just like Konoha did to my family… TRAITORS! YOU DESERVE TO DIE!"_

Sakura bowed her head, shutting her eyes as the tears streamed down her cheeks.

It was all her fault.

If only she just let him die…If only she just killed herself at that very moment…

Now Sasuke was out to destroy Konoha again. And he had her journal to help him do it without Konoha knowing it was being attacked.

She should have listened to the elders. She should have killed him when she had the chance. She should have just let the elders kill them both before he woke up!

Yoake smiled. "There, there," he whispered, caressing her tear-stained cheeks. "There's one other thing I need to tell you."

Sakura opened her eyes and glared up at Yoake.

"The people had voted to skip the public trial and procede with the court's decision about your case," Yoake said.

Sakura didn't care. She knew Yoake was planning to give her a death sentence.

"You will be burned at the stake," Yoake said," Just as people accused of dark arts are punished."

Sakura expected to die…But not to die slowly at the stake – watching people pour gas and strike matches to burn you…watching people stare at you as your flesh burn and you suffocate from the smoke.

"But don't worry," Yoake said, caressing her cheek. "I'll make sure you don't feel the pain. I will spare you from their stares, and from the sting of the flames."

Sakura stared confused at Yoake.

He would save her?

"I know you want to talk to him, one last time," Yoake whispered. "And I will let you do so. I will let you explain everything to him so he doesn't destroy Konoha."

"How did you know about all of this?" Sakura asked, slowly realizing what Yoake had done.

"Nothing that you should worry about," he said locking his eyes with Sakura's pale green ones. He watched her pupils dilate and freeze for a moment, before he leaned away and pulled his hand away from her face.

Sakura's head bowed limply – eyes open and looking dead.

Akio stiffened and stared confused at Sakura.

Yoake sighed.

"W-What did you do..?" Akio asked.

"I did what I told her I would do," Yoake answered. "Now she will feel no pain. She will hear no sound, nor will she see anything with her open eyes. She will stay in the realm of dreams with the man she loves," he said walking to the door.

"Wait," he said pausing for a moment. "Did I say 'dreams'? I meant '**nightmares**'" he said smiling widely at Akio.


	48. Chapter 48

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll'! _^ v ^

_Aww, thats's really heartwarming, _**HoneyySenp****ai, purpleeyedvocaloid, Kemi Kemi, BananaphoneBob, **_and to everyone else I haven't mentioned. THANK YOU! _* v * _I'm really happy to hear how much you've enjoyed reading the story, even though its getting really long. _

_Sorry,_ **Noura **_and_ **LilyOfTheValley**. _I __can only update once a week at the moment. _* v *

_I can't blame you for feeling a bit dizzy in those parts, _**moonfairy14**. _I got a bit dizzy writing it down too. _

_Here's this week's chapter, everyone! It's not as long as the last one though. Do tell me what you all think about it! _^ v ^

* * *

><p>Houren jumped down from the tree - the thick snow cushioning his fall. He turned and walked toward Sasuke's splayed body on the snow.<p>

He watched Sasuke's trembling eyelids, knowing well how deeply Dream had claimed his consciousness.

Then Sasuke's fingers twitched.

Houren frowned. Though Sasuke's want to hear the truth from Sakura was there, it wasn't enough to sustain the dream into which Sakura's side of the story was unfolding.

The key to opening up an imprint is a strong urge to open it, whether by ordering the keeper to reveal it or by showing the keeper one's intention to see what the imprint contained. So the way to close the imprint is to order it to stop - shun the images it was showing.

And in Sasuke's case, doubt everything he was seeing as false and believe he didn't need to see the rest of the imprints.

"Uchiha Sasuke," Houren sighed, lifting his hand away from his side and pointing his fingers at the ground as if commanding something from the snow. "I may no longer be allowed to kill another human," he said as the snow on the ground began to grown and stretch itself to touch his outstretched hand. It twisted into a long rod of snow. "..But if you will continue to be a threat to innocent people like my own grandson, I will kill you."

The rod of snow shattered, leaving a shimerring crystal katana in Houren's hand.

He lifted the katana and touched Sasuke's throat with its blade.

Sasuke's fingers fidgeted.

And that was **not **a good sign.

* * *

><p>"They arrested her," Kaitaro anxiously said.<p>

Daiki and the other villagers who knew about Yoake's dirty work met in his clinic to confirm the news that Yoake's men had been telling the whole village.

"Wounded and all?" Daiki asked, gasping in shock.

Kaitaro nodded.

"And you didn't stop them?" Daiki angrily exclaimed.

"I couldn't," Kaitaro said.

Choko sadly patted Daiki's shoulder. "You must understand," she said. "Keiko-chan's life could be in danger if he interfered."

Daiki sighed and looked away, still pissed at the fact that no one tried to save Sakura.

"No," Kaitaro said, looking grimly at his hands.

The people in the room looked confused at him.

Kaitaro looked up and glanced at the room where Keiko lay sleeping. The effect of Houren's concoction was yet to wear off, perhaps because Houren had a feeling that the day wouldn't just end with Sakura's arrest.

Kaitaro looked back down at his hands. It wasn't just Keiko he was worried about.

There were...things...that could happen if he actively fought against Yoake and provoked him - things that would involve the lives of almost everyone in the village. If that happened, all of Sakura, the Anbu ninjas', his wife's and the other doctors' efforts would be in vain. Innocent people would suffer. Kaitaro knew Kei would never forgive him if he sacrificed the whole village to do what he wanted to do, even if it was seeking justice for the dead and Yoake's destruction.

"You don't understand," Kaitaro said grimly. "The gravity of what he's done."

"What has he done then?" Daiki asked. "What's keeping you from wanting revenge for your wife's death, other than Keiko-chan's safety?"

Kaitaro looked up at him. "The death of the people Sakura saved," he said. "And that includes everyone in the village, even you."

* * *

><p>"Are you planning to kill Sasuke?" Naruto asked - his blue eyes watching Kakashi carefully.<p>

He cornered the ninja in the training grounds. Kakashi had been sitting blankly on a tree for the past hour when Naruto came and confronted him.

Kakashi calmly jumped down from the tree and faced Naruto, too tired of running away from his former student. Besides, if there was one person who would surely be able to stop Sasuke, it was Uzumaki Naruto.

"Those are tough words you got there," Kakashi said looking casually at Naruto, his two hands tucked inside his pockets.

"You're leading Anbu ninjas on patrol 24/7," Naruto said. "As if there's a threat to Konoha."

"There always is," Kakashi replied. "You of all people should know that."

"And it happens to be greater now that Sasuke's out of the village?" Naruto asked, anger in his blue eyes.

Kakashi sighed. "Why do you think we want to kill him?"

"**You** tell me," Naruto said glaring coldly at Kakashi. "You seem to know more about it than I do."

Kakashi walked closer to him and patted his head. "Do you think Sasuke would want Konoha destroyed again?" he asked.

"**NO**," Naruto answered loudly. "**He's not going to do that!** **He's changed**, just like the village has!"

Kakashi's visible eye smiled. "Then you have nothing to worry about," he said.

Naruto scowled. "**WHY ARE YOU KEEPING ME IN THE DARK?! I CARE ABOUT THEM, JUST AS MUCH AS YOU DO!**"

Kakashi stared at him for a moment before tucking his hand inside his pocket and looking away. "If it's really that much of a threat, I'll tell you," you know," he said.

Naruto's eyes went wide. "So...So you're not planning to kill him?"

"Just between you and me," Kakashi said looking at Naruto. "I have as much faith in him as you do."

Naruto smiled. "Can I join the patrol then?"

Kakashi chuckled and shook his head. "I doubt any of the Anbu ninjas would like it, knowing who Sasuke is to you."

Naruto scowled. "I'm the best chance you all have in stopping him, if there's really a need for it," he said.

"I know," Kakashi said nodding. "That's why I'm talking to you. It's not like we can keep this away from you that long."

"So you'll tell me why Sasuke might want to destroy Konoha?" Naruto asked. "Does it have something to do with Sakura? Do you know where he is? What his mission is? Is he with Sakura?"

Kakashi smiled. "Unfortunately I'm already late for a meeting with Ibiki," he said. "I'll have to talk to you about that some other time."

Naruto glared at him. "You're **still** not planning on telling me anything."

Kakashi walked away. "Just stay at home," he said, "And don't let anyone else see you awake."

Naruto stared confused at Kakashi.

* * *

><p>Sasuke shut his eyes and covered his ears with his hands.<p>

What if all those things that he saw were false? What if all those events didn't happen? What if Houren caught him inside a genjutsu?

He opened his mangekyou sharingan eyes and saw darkness surrounding him.

Sakura couldn't have done those things...Why would she bring him back to life? Why would Tsunade want that event kept a secret?

Why would Sakura apologize to him?

**IT ALL DIDN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!**

"I remember giving you a scroll that contained a technique that could heal the most deadliest wounds," he heard Houren say from behind him.

He stiffly turned around and saw Houren sitting on the boulder where the Anrui flower grew. And sure enough on his feet was a bush teeming with shimerirng white, luminous flowers.

Sasuke found himself in the woods with Sakura standing beside him. He slowly looked at her and noticed something off about her...

He froze, realizing how much paler her eyes were in compoarison with the last Sakura he saw.

So she was already sick before she went to Nanashi village with Jirotaiku and the others. Could Tsunade have known this?

"And with it some techniques on temporarily taking someone's memory away," Houren continued.

So that was what the scroll contained. But if that was what Houren taught her...

"You did them all wrong though," Houren said glaring at Sakura.

Wrong..?

Sasuke looked at Sakura.

She stood calm and composed.

So it was all a mistake? An accident..? She wasn't trying to bring him back to life at all?

"I'm sorry," Sakura said. "I...wanted to save someone badly. I thought changing things a bit on the techniques would...save him."

"And did it?" Houren asked.

"Yes...It did," she answered, sadness swallowing her pale green eyes.

"At what cost?" Houren asked, raising a brow at her.

"I've...been feeling weaker," she answered, her confidence faltering with every word.

Sasuke froze.

Was that what Houren meant when he said Sakura risked her life for him? Was that what Kakashi meant when he said Sasuke was commiting suicide? When Sakura herself said Sasuke's very existence is killing her?

Houren smirked. "Do you regret it?" he asked.

Sakura looked down at the Anrui flowers.

Sasuke watched her anxiously.

Did you regret it, Sakura? ...Bringing back to life a criminal who wanted to kill everyone in Konoha..?

"Yes," Sakura said. "I regret it."

Sasuke looked away.

So she really wanted him dead after all. Was it those death threats he gave her while she was taking care of him in his prison cell? Was it the trial she went through after his killing spree in the hospital? Was it his continued disgust against Konoha?

No. She probably just realized he was better off dead.

Houren stared at her for a moment - studying her. "Why?"

"Tch," Sasuke muttered, annoyed at what he was seeing. He knew what Sakura was going to say. No point in watching the rest of the event.

Where the hell was the next scene?

"I...put him in more danger," Sakura answered, sadness ringing in her voice.

Sasuke stiffly looked at Sakura again. He saw the same expression she had when she apologized to him in the hospital - grief, disappointment, anxiety...pain.

He suddenly couldn't move. Was that...what he expected her to say?

Houren frowned. "Tell me again why you wrongly did those techniques," he said. "And in detail, cherry blossom."

Sasuke suddenly heard a loud and low creaking sound echo behind him.

He turned around and saw the inside of his dimly-lit prison cell.

Sasuke froze as the steel door opened, letting a stoic Sakura in.

He watched her stand still, her head bowed, as the door shut behind her. She waited for a moment before she lifted her head up, just like she always did.

Sasuke looked at her sad green eyes. Why hadn't he noticed it before - the change in the colour of her eyes?

He watched her slowly take a step forward, eyes fixed at him...or rather to whoever was behind him.

Sasuke turned around and followed her as she walked to the unconscious patient sleeping on the bed across the room.

Sasuke saw another copy of himself - the Uchiha Sasuke that lay in a coma for months. He watched Sakura check the sleeping prisoner's vital signs, checking even the heart monitor, the oxygen and the IV distributing the dextrose fluid into his veins.

While she was checking his temperature, she leaned down on the bed - tears running down her cheeks - her green eyes looking sadly at her patient's peaceful face.

"What have I done?" she gasped, her hand clutching the thick steel cuff that fixed Sasuke's right arm on the bed.

Sasuke watched her shoulders tremble.

She really regretted it.

He slowly walked closer to her. He stood beside her, his eyes fixed at her grief-stricken face.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun. You don't deserve this. You should be free from all this pain."

Sasuke stared confused at Sakura.

He...didn't deserve it..? How..? **WHY?**

"Anbu," Sakura said from behind him.

Sasuke turned around and saw Sakura sitting in front of the Tsunade in the Hokage's office. He noticed how dark it was outside from the office window.

"You think this should be kept secret," Sakura said.

Tsunade looked grimly at Sakura. "You said it yourself," she said. "The disease seems more than a disease. And other ninja villages seem to believe the same or they suddenly want to learn about biological warfare."

Sasuke folded his arms. So they were discussing the mission in Nanashi village.

**Wait**...So Sakura wasn't assigned to do it?

The Hokage leaned back on her chair. "Either way," she continued. "This mission is too sensitive for ordinary jounins to take on. I don't want the elders ordering us to slaughter another clan to save Konoha."

Sasuke snorted. The elders wanted him, the only remaining Uchiha, **dead**.

Wait...So...Sakura told her about...Houren..?

Sakura nodded slowly, understanding Tsunade's point.

"I want you to provide the Anbu with all the information you think would be useful to them in this mission," Tsunade said. "Submit it to me tomorrow night."

"Tsunade-shishou," Sakura said looking away. "When…When will you send the Anbu team?"

Sasuke saw the anxiety on her face.

"Three days from now," Tsunade answered.

"That's…That's when Sasuke will get out of his prison cell," Sakura muttered.

Sasuke froze.

Tsunade eyed her carefully. "Yes."

Sakura looked up at Tsunade. "Can you send out a medic nin with the Anbu team?" Sakura asked.

"I already did," Tsunade answered.

Sasuke couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Sakura clenched her fist. "Can you send me out with that team?"

"I can," Tsunade answered. "But why would I do that?"

Sakura took a deep breath and summoned all her confidence. "I want to know more about the disease," she said. "If the intelligence report is accurate, it's possible that there's already a ninja village out there with basic knowledge about the illness. I believe we should catch up with them by coming up with a cure to the illness."

Sasuke stared at Sakura.

She knew she would see Houren there. And he met him! Asked him how to...undo...what she did.

Sasuke suddenly felt his chest scream out in pain.

Tsunade watched Sakura with a bored expression.

"I will leave the mission to keep the Anbu team safe to the medic nin you assigned," Sakura said.

"In short, you want to go there for a separate mission," Tsunade said.

"Yes, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura answered.

"No."

Sakura tried hard not to wince. "A mission to find the cure to the disease and even to find what causes the disease will greatly benefit Konoha," she said.

"Then I will have the medic nin I assigned, do that job," Tsunade said. "This conversation is over."

Sakura stood up.

The Hokage raised her brows at her.

"You said it yourself," she said. "I am one of the best medic nins in Konoha today. My participation in that mission will ensure its success."

"You are in-charge of Uchiha Sasuke," Tsunade said glaring coldly at her student.

"My responsibility to Uchiha Sasuke ends when he leaves his prison cell," Sakura reasoned. "That was the condition we and the elders agreed on in the trial."

Sasuke's eyes went wide.

Was that...Was that why she chose to leave Konoha? She wasn't supposed to take care of him anymore once he left his prison cell? She wasn't supposed to see him or talk to him or-

"And you are to still going to be responsible for whatever he does outside his prison cell," Tsunade reminded.

"I have not forgotten that fact," Sakura said. "And I have no intention of running away from whatever punishment I need to receive from you and the elders in the event that he tries to hurt or destroy anyone and anything in the village."

Sasuke looked away.

"Being on that mission will get you away from the village," Tsunade said.

"But not under your supervision," Sakura said. "And I have no plans of getting away from that, not when becoming a missing nin automatically grants death penalty on Sasuke."

Sasuke cursed. So if he ended up hurting anyone in the village when he got out, Sakura would have been executed while on the mission.

Why couldn't she just save herself? It wasn't as if he couldn't kill anyone who tried to kill him. HE WASN'T WEAK!

Sasuke cleanched his trembling fists. He wasn't weak...He didn't need her to protect him...that way...He didn't want to get her killed because of him.

Tsunade just watched Sakura.

Sakura's fists were clenched and shaking.

"Does this mission have something to do with what you did to save him?" Tsunade asked.

Sakura closed her eyes. "I…believe so."

"What do you intend to do if it does have something to do with it?"

Sakura opened her eyes and looked at Tsunade.

"I intend to undo it all," Sakura answered. "…Just as the elders wanted."

Sasuke stared at Sakura.

"You want us to kill him," Tsunade said.

"I want him to realize what I wish him to realize, without the things I did," Sakura said, her voice slightly trembling. "The elders were right. If he woke up without what I gave him, he would still want to destroy the village. He would never see us as his family anymore."

Sasuke looked confused at Sakura. The elders didn't know about what Sakura did, right? At least... That was what he saw in the trial he watched.

What else happened?

"But you still hope he will," Tsunade said. "You still hope he will go back to being the Sasuke you know."

Sasuke looked away, glaring coldly at the window.

"I hope," Sakura said - the sadness in her "That's all I can do about it after all."

Sasuke clenched his fists. Sakura and her sickening hope...and love...and devotion...

"If you undo what you did, there's a greater possibility that he would seek Konoha's destruction," Tsunade said. "And I would have to order every ninja to kill him on sight."

"That's the only way to save Konoha," Sakura said.

"…And save him. Is that correct?" Tsunade asked.

Sasuke looked up at Sakura. In deed. Death was the only thing that could save him. And his death...meant her own murder.

Sakura looked away.

"Sit down," Tsunade said.

Sakura did what she was told.

"I want to hear it," Tsunade said.

Sakura couldn't look up at Tsunade.

"The Anbu guards around his prison cell said you acted like you didn't know him before he was imprisoned," the Hokage began. "You called him 'Sasuke.' You didn't speak to him unless not doing so affected your task of caring for his health. Why the indifference..?"

Sakura looked up at Tsunade. "That was the agreement with the elders," she said."That I act indifferent."

Sasuke scowled, clenching his fists tighter.

"Is that all?" Tsunade asked. "Or is there something else I need to know?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Tsunade-shishou."

"You haven't been performing well in the hospital," Tsunade said.

Sasuke saw Sakura stiffen.

"You haven't killed anyone yet, but you can't seem to heal people much either," Tsunade said. "You've asked other medic nins to do it for you several times."

Sakura didn't speak.

"They don't seem to mind," Tsunade said. "Knowing what you're going through since Uchiha Sasuke came back. But it doesn't change the fact that it's wrong, and that I have to reprimand you for it."

Sakura took a deep breath.

"I want to hear it," Tsunade said. "What did you do to Sasuke? And what effect did it have on you?"

"I just didn't have that much sleep these past weeks," Sakura answered.

"Why?"

Sasuke wondered if she told the Hokage about what she did. Would she answer the question? Would he see the whole conversation?

"I've been-"

"You really believe you can lie to me, Sakura?"

Sakura winced.

"WHY."

Sasuke watched tension fill the air. He could see Sakura weighing circumstances in her head.

"I will tell you everything," Sakura began. "…If you send me out on that mission."

Tsunade glared at Sakura.

"Otherwise, I'm willing to accept any punishment you wish to give me," Sakura said.

Sasuke watched Tsunade glare at Sakura. She watched her student for a moment before she leaned back and crossed her arms. "Spill."

Sasuke watched Sakura take a deep breath. "I made a connection between Sasuke's chakra circulatory system and mine, so his body would get enough chakra from me to sustain his life," Sakura said.

Tsunade raised a brow at her.

"His body lost a lot of chakra - enough to seize his basic body functions and kill him," she explained. "So I put a seal on his chest that acted like a wormhole. When his body needs chakra to keep a part of it working, it takes chakra from the wormhole, not from the core of his chakra circulatory system. It makes his body automatically take chakra from me, instead of from his own body. That way, his body could focus on restoring itself and restoring his chakra levels."

Sasuke felt his insides twist. The reason why it took him some time to do his jutsus and control his chakra again was because his body was drawing chakra from Sakura, not from his own body.

Her body couldn't possibly hold enough chakra to fuel his body, nor does it have enough chakra to do the jutsus he had used and developed.

Tsunade glared coldly at Sakura. "Where did you learn that?" she hissed. "Do you have ANY idea what this can do to you?"

Sakura nodded. "I do," she said, smirking and looking down at her hands. "And it's manifesting real quick," she said chuckling.

Sasuke held his breath as he watched Sakura bite her lip.

"Sakura," Tsunade said. "Your eyes...are paler."

Sakura nodded. "For some reason, it's caused disfunctions with my body's melanin production. I'm thinking it's my body's way of compensating for the loss of chakra - disabling some of the minor functions in my body so the vital functions wouldn't stop."

Tsunade sighed and looked away. "Uchiha has quite a chakra reserve," she said. "With that seal on him, his body will take all the chakra it had been used to hold and consume, from you. You're not that strong, Sakura."

Sakura nodded. "I know," she said. "I won't last that long once he gets out of prison and starts to gain his life back."

Sasuke cursed and glared at the wall. That wasn't all that it meant.

Tsunade looked grimly at her student. "You'll die in no time," she said.

Sasuke closed his eyes, suddenly feeling like it was all too much for him.

"I learned the technique from a stranger," Sakura said looking up at Tsunade. "I tweaked it a bit and used it on Sasuke without knowing much about it's effect on me. I have a feeling I'll see him there in that village."

"There is no way to undo what you've done," Houren's voice echoed from behind Sasuke.

Sasuke gasped and turned around. He saw Houren on the boulder again, talking to Sakura in the woods. "I'm sorry but the only way to break the seal is to break the host. And in this case, the host is you, Sakura. That means you'll have to die to set your beloved one free."

Sasuke's eyes went wide.

_"Sasuke," Houren began. "Death is the only thing that can save Sakura."_

Houren wasn't telling him about curing the illness. He was telling him about the seal that Sakura made on his chest. Even if they found a cure for the second strain of the disease, it wouldn't keep Sakura from dying.

"Sakura..." he gasped, his vision begining to blur.

Sakura was going to die because she put that blasted seal to him. She was going to die because she volunteered to be in that cursed mission that inflicted her with the disease. She was going to die because he left her there for Yoake to kill.

Sakura was going to die because of him.

Wasn't that his plan all along?

* * *

><p>"We've received word that Sasuke is in the woods," Yoake said as he stood by the window of his study.<p>

Kasaru, Ijira and Zumi sat around a table in the room.

"You're sure about this," Kasaru said.

Ijira wanted to snort.

They didn't find anyone in the location Houren gave them. And yet there they were, listening to another intelligence report from the lying bastard.

When he told Kasaru about it, Kasaru told him to shut up and think about how Houren gave them word on Sakura's confinement in the village's only clinic, and her arrest.

Houren gave them updates - updates they were able to confirm as true.

For some reason, Kasaru and Zumi had succumed to Houren's filthy lies and Ijira couldn't do much about it. Perhaps Ijira should just kill them, and look for the Uchiha on his own.

No. He would need them for the technique he wanted to use against Uchiha Sasuke.

"Yes," Yoake answered. "And he has the scroll. Sakura said he had taken it with him, in accordance to their Hokage's orders."

Ijira clenched his fist. It wasn't like Uchiha Sasuke - to follow Konoha's orders, or even to ignore the chance to make a name for himself in battle.

Why was he listening to this crap again?

Kasaru smirked. "We'll take care of him."

Yoake smiled. "Thank you," he said, though he doubted the ninjas would survive an encounter with the enraged Uchiha.

* * *

><p>Sakura opened her eyes and found herself in the woods with Sasuke.<p>

She didn't know why she was there, nor could she recall how she got there. She tried to remember what happened before she woke up. She tried to remember everything...**anything.**

But the only memory she could recall was being there in the woods with him. She felt like she was there to talk to him about something very important.

Sasuke stood glaring coldly at him - the seal on his chest staring back at her.

She gasped, remembering about how Sasuke shouldn't know about the seal.

"Sasuke-kun-"

"You betrayed me," Sasuke hissed, his sharingan eyes burning with fury. "You brought me to life to be Konoha's slave."

"NO! That wasn't my intention! I wanted you to-"

"**LIAR!**" Sasuke shouted. "YOU WANTED ME TO BE WHO YOU WANTED ME TO BE! YOUR PUPPET! THAT WAS WHY YOU TOOK MY EMOTIONS AWAY! SO I WOULD ACT THE WAY YOU WANTED ME TO!"

"NO!" Sakura screamed, falling down on her knees and covering her ears. "That wasn't it!"

"YOU'RE SELFISH! YOU BROUGHT ME TO LIFE BECAUSE YOU WANTED ME TO LIVE FOR YOU! **I HATE YOU**! YOU'RE ALL THE SAME! You don't love me...YOU ONLY LOVE YOURSELF!"

"NO!" Sakura screamed, shaking her head.

That wasn't the reason why she brought him back to life. She wasn't being selfish! She just couldn't see him die! She couldn't lose him! She couldn't lose them - Sasuke and Naruto...and Kakashi...and Sai...and everyone she loved and cared for...

If it happened to any one of them - to Naruto, to Kakashi, to Sai, to Ino, to **anyone** - she would do the same thing! She would give them her life!

Sakura stiffened.

If anyone she loved...was in Sasuke's situation...

"You would bring them back to life so they could live?" Sasuke whispered in her ear. "Or so you wouldn't lose them, Sa-ku-ra?"

Sakura gasped.

"I...I..."

"You're **selfish**," Sasuke hissed. "You're **lying** to me and to yourself. You didn't save me. **YOU SENTENCED ME TO A LIFE OF PAIN AND SERVITUDE**!"

Sakura shakily looked up at him. "Sasuke-kun...I'm so sorry..." she whispered, her eyes filled with tears. "I'm so sorry..."

"YOU THINK YOUR SORRY WILL DO ANYTHING TO WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ME?"

Sakura winced.

"...TO WHAT YOU'VE PUT ME THROUGH? NO! IT WON'T!"

"Sasuke-kun..."

"Set me free," he whispered - his face pained and desperate. "Set me free, Sakura."

Sakura couldn't move.

There was only one way to set him free - kill herself.


	49. Chapter 49

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll'_

_Aww, thank you so much, _**amanduhxxx**. _That was really heartwarming. _* v *

_WOW! That was quite a mouthful, _**Nonny**_!_ _Thanks!_

_Sorry, _**Will Heins**_, I can't tell you if Sakura is going to die or not. _^ v ^

_I'm not sure where I got the ideas for this story myself, _**BelieverInMusic**. _One day minute I was thinking about how Sakura should die in Naruto (since people were all arguing on how Naruto or Sasuke should die), and then BAM! This story popped out of my head. _^ v ^

_I'm actually really busy these past few weeks. I actually didn't update my other story on time because I prioritized updating this story. Since I'm really very busy and all, I couldn't upload a really lengthy chapter this week. _

_Nonetheless, here it is - this week's chapter. Do tell me what you all think about it! _^ v ^

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><p>Yoake watched the villagers walk to the town square.<p>

He had called for an assembly – a public trial for the criminal he had arrested from Kaitaro's clinic. The hall they used for town assemblies was one of the structures that were burned to the ground in the anarchy that was brought about by the plague. It was still under construction so Yoake opted to have everyone out in the town square.

His men guarded the premises, ushering men, women and children to stand past the memorial statue. Kaitaro, Daiki, and the other villagers who wanted nothing to do with Yoake's reign were also led into the square.

"You're sure this is a trial?" Daiki whispered to Kaitaro as they walked further into the square. "He's not just going to kill her here at this very moment?"

"No," Kaitaro whispered. "Yoake knows there are people opposing him. He will do this properly for our sake."

Daiki grunted. "You think he would really stop the execution if someone in this ground calls for her safety?"

Kaitaro looked grimly at the stage that was set up ahead of them – the stage where Yoake sat on his regal chair. "**If** someone even attempts to do that," he whispered.

Yoake smiled as the soldiers barricaded the town square area. The villagers who needed to be there were already there.

It was time to begin.

"Thank you all, for coming here today," Yoake said, standing up from his chair and smiling warmly at everyone. "As you may have heard, we arrested Haruno Sakura this morning after confirming that she was healthy enough to attend her trial."

Daiki angrily clenched his fist as the villagers booed and shouted for Sakura's immediate execution. The mere statement Yoake made about Sakura being arrested upon confirming that was physically fit for a trial made his blood boil.

Sakura was **not** in any way physically fit for a trial, not after what happened to her!

Kaitaro watched Yoake grimly.

The sound of the villagers shouting for Sakura's murder was what he knew and feared he would hear.

Yoake raised his hands, trying to appease the furious crowd. "I understand where you are coming from," he said. "I too have love ones engraved on that memorial statue. But Haruno Sakura, just as every one of us, deserves a fair trial."

"She murdered clans and families with her witchcraft!" shouted a man from the crowd. "She deserves no mercy!"

Many of the villagers yelled out to agree.

"She killed innocent children!" cried an old woman. "She killed pregnant women and day-old infants! She deserves the most horrendous death!"

The angry villagers cheered.

Yoake acted like he was saddened at the event, and nodded. "At least, my dear subjects," he said. "Let us hear her side." He stretched out his hand to his right.

The people watched Akio almost drag Sakura to the stage.

Kaitaro stiffened at the sight of her bowed head and drooping eyes. Chains held her hands behind her back.

She was barely walking up the stage.

Akio made her face the crowd. Balls of snow immediately hit her face, her chest, her body. The villagers went mad, many of them trying to attack her on the stage.

The soldiers kept them from reaching the stage.

Yoake watched the scene with curious eyes. He expected the villagers to be enraged at the sight of her, but to see them that violent..?

Daiki cursed.

Kaitaro swallowed.

Sakura would face the people, not look away from them. She was a brave girl. She wouldn't look away from the people. She wanted to die with dignity.

"No," he gasped as he realized what was happening.

"What is it?" Choko asked.

"Calm down!" Yoake shouted. "Please! Let her speak!"

It took a moment for the villagers to stop yelling.

Yoake turned to look at Sakura. "Haruno Sakura," he began. "You have been charged with multiple murder and fraud. The villagers have called for your immediate execution. But I wish to hear your side in this assembly. Have you anything to say to defend yourself?"

Sakura's eyes remained dead to the world. She kept her snow-stained face bowed. She remained quiet and unmoving.

"Haruno Sakura," Yoake said. "Tell us your side."

Sakura did not respond.

Daiki, Choko and the other villagers who sided with her stared confused at Sakura. Was this her plan? To let the people judge her wrongly?

Kaitaro winced.

He couldn't believe his own kin would do such a cruel thing.

"Silence, according to village laws means guilt!" cried one of the villagers.

"Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" the crowd began to chant.

Yoake looked sadly at the villagers before looking at Sakura once more.

Indeed, silence meant guilt in Nanashi law. And Sakura remained silent.

Kaitaro clenched his trembling fists.

He had always been the one with the most patience in the family. That was why he was able to keep himself from provoking Yoake. But what had transpired made him think twice about his stand on everything.

Why should he bother to protect the people from Yoake, when they didn't seem to want any protection from him?

Kaitaro opened his eyes and watched the crowd chant louder for Sakura's death.

Why should he protect them when they deserve what could happen to them?

"SILENCE!" Yoake commanded. The crowd stopped chanting. "In that case, we will proceed to declaring the punishment for her crimes."

The crowd cheered. "Burn her!" they began to chant.

Yoake raised his hand. The villagers went silent. "According to the Nanashi village's law, the punishment for the offense of multiple murder is death by the flames which is to be carried out as immediately as possible."

The crowed cheered once more.

"I hereby sentence Haruno Sakura," Yoake said. "To death by the flames. Haruno Sakura, in accordance to the law, will hereby be burned at the stake later this afternoon, here in the town square."

The crowd shouted, chanted, and jumped in triumph. Many of them began to dance and give praises to the sky for finally serving their loved ones justice.

Kaitaro, Choko, Daiki and the others who didn't like the decision remained silent.

"We can organize people and get her away before noon," Daiki whispered.

"It's no use," Kaitaro said. "Yoake has locked her soul away."

Daiki's eyes widened. "Is that…Is that why-"

"Yes," Kaitaro said. "And remember how the Anbu ninjas rescued Jirotaiku from the dungeon. They almost died in doing so. What chance would our woodcutters have against Yoake's defenses?"

Daiki cursed. "Where the hell is that Sasuke when you need him?"

Kaitaro sighed. He watched Akio take Sakura away from the stage.

Yes. Perhaps they needed Sasuke. They needed Sasuke to set Sakura free from the prison that Yoake had given her.

They needed him to kill her. If only he returned and realized it was better to kill Sakura on his own…

* * *

><p>Houren pressed the blade closer to Sasuke's neck, ready to slit the sleeping ninja's throat.<p>

Warm wisps of air suddenly blew his way.

He paused and turned his head to look at the woods.

Perched on a tree was a snowy owl - its amber eyes shining in the dim light of the woods.

Houren watched him for a moment, his grey eyes locked with the owl's own.

"You're here to deport me," he said.

The owl remained emotionless. "You've used up all your passes," it answered, the low voice confirming Houren's thoughts about the owl's identity.

Houren smirked.

He expected this. The remaining Anrui flower had perished. He would soon lose the body he was using to exist in the human world.

"Kill your prisoner," the owl said. "And come back home for good. You will be allowed to visit this realm again, but only to take your heir for her exile."

"I understand," Houren said. He turned to look at Sasuke again. "Just leave the gate open. I'll be home by the sun here sets."

"Until the sun here sets," the owl said. "If you do not come back by then, we will forfeit your immortality, and vanquish your remaining kin."

Houren nodded.

The owl proudly stretched its wings and flew to the sky.

Houren fixed his eyes at his hand - the one that held the sword against Sasuke's next.

For a moment he thought it became transluscent.

* * *

><p>The scene with the Hokage had faded out to black.<p>

He closed his eyes, still feeling confused about everything. Why did he feel bad when he realized she was fated to die that way? Why did he even feel bad when he thought about her death? Why did he feel like he wanted to do something about it?

What should he do? Sakura betrayed him! She sold him to the elders! She forced him to live a false life!

"We, the elders, are not to be fooled," he suddenly heard a voice say from behind him.

He turned around and saw himself in the tribunal hall once more. Sakura stood on the place of the accused again. But this time, she looked better.

"We had Anbu ninjas investigate Uchiha Sasuke's mysterious survival," the elder said. "And we found out that you performed quite an interesting jutsu, Haruno Sakura. What else have you not been telling us?"

Sasuke looked at Sakura. She looked calm and composed. The Hokage on the other hand looked angry at Sakura.

"The jutsu you performed in the hospital when Uchiha Sasuke slaughtered his guards," an elder prompted. "That was the reason you were so confident on telling us he would do Konoha no harm."

Sakura took a deep breath. "I figured it would be a loss to Konoha," she said. "If he died."

"It caused the death of twenty Anbu guards," an elder hissed.

"The jutsu I did in the hospital made a seal on him that will suppress the emotions that motivates his thirst for vengeance against Konoha," she explained.

"The word, Haruno Sakura, is 'suppress,'" an elder snapped. "A jutsu cannot be permanent. What do you think will happen if the seal is broken? If all those emotions it suppressed suddenly floods out into his consciousness like water from a broken dam? You have put Konoha into more danger, Haruno. You should be banished from Konoha."

"She knows about the seal," Tsunade said. "That means she can tell us when the seal is waning. She **will** tell us when it is weakening."

"Perhaps that is so," an elder said. "But it does not change the fact that whatever jutsu she performed could be used wrongly by anyone who knew about it. What assurance do we have that she will not pass the knowledge she has to others who want to destroy Konoha?"

"If she is confined within the village, we can make sure she doesn't tell anyone about what she did," Tsunade said.

"If she is dead, we wouldn't have to send out guards to ensure she doesn't organize anything against us," an elder said.

Tsunade frowned. "She will tell us more about the Uchiha's condition and how to deal with him while he is in such a state."

"The Hokage has a point," an elder said. "By what I can understand, the seal that Haruno Sakura put on the Uchiha manipulates his…motivations."

Sakura stiffened.

Sasuke looked grimly at the elder.

"That means, we can also control him now," the elder continued. "We can manipulate him and turn him into the loyal ninja he once was.

"W-Wait!" Sakura anxiously said.

Sasuke looked confused at her.

"Th-That wasn't-"

"If Haruno Sakura does not wish to cooperate, we can just execute them both," the elder said.

Sakura froze.

Sasuke could see the shock and apprehension on her face.

"Why don't we just execute Haruno Sakura and leave the Uchiha alive?" an elder asked.

"The jutsu was performed by Haruno Sakura," an elder answered. "If we kill her, there's a possibility that the seal she placed on the Uchiha will vanish. We would have no choice but to execute him if that happens."

"True," an elder said. "No point in letting him live if he would only destroy the village. A point Haruno Sakura dismissed – the very evidence of her treachery to Konoha."

"Shall we let them live to see if what she claims is true then?" an elder asked. "Or shall we execute them both?"

"We would be losing one of the best medic ninjas, and one of the strongest ninjas in Konoha if you decide to execute them," Tsunade said. "With the village undergoing recovery from the ninja war, I believe this should be thought further before a decision is given."

"Very well," said an elder. "If ever we do decide to let them live, we will have to change the conditions we have given to Haruno Sakura."

"Indeed," agreed another elder.

Sakura didn't speak. She looked too stunned to say anything.

When the elders walked out and the Hokage approached her, she was staring blankly at nowhere.

"Either we use him or we dispose of him," Tsunade said. "That's how it's going to be." She then left Sakura alone in the hall.

Sasuke sighed and walked closer to her, unsure of what he should do. He stood beside her, watching her stare at the air.

Tears suddenly streamed down her cheeks.

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…"

Sasuke sighed.

She was sorry not because he lived, but because she made a decision on his behalf – a decision she knew Sasuke wouldn't choose to do.

"_If we kill her, there's a possibility that the seal she placed on the Uchiha will vanish. We would have no choice but to execute him if that happens."_

Sasuke smirked.

He remembered the times when he missed feeling the numbness in his chest – when he felt the pain of anger, desperation, guilt, and grief… Those were times when Sakura's body had drastically fallen ill.

In one of his conversation with Houren, he remembered about how Sakura suppressed the development of her illness so she could write and finish the scroll. She suppressed it using another seal – a seal that could have cost her quite an amount of chakra. When it broke, all hell broke lose and the illness quickly ate her health up.

Perhaps that was what would happen if Sakura died. All the things she kept from him – his nightmares, his emotions, his body's access to his chakra – they would all go back to him like a raging flood, devouring him.

If he didn't know about what Sakura did, he might have dealt with it casually. He would think he didn't lose them at all. He just had more different dreams since he woke up. And he wouldn't be too aloof to consult Naruto about them.

If he didn't know…But he **did** know… He knew she took them away.

He sighed.

Wasn't that why he hated her so much? She betrayed him? Why did he suddenly understand her though? None of what he was seeing there were true! They could all be just genjutsus, or some kind of illusion Houren made!

They could all just be lies. After all, none of them made sense. Sakura would be powerful enough to revive him? To create a wormhole on his chest that sucked the life out of her to fuel his existence? To create a wormhole, over that wormhole, that diverted his ability to feel negative emotions to her body? That made her see his nightmares, feel his pain, weaken in his strength..?

Impossible! It just couldn't be real! Sakura was weak! She tried to kill him!

He suddenly heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Sakura walk into a his prison cell. She waited for the Anbu guards outside to seal the steel door before she walked further into the room.

Somehow, the scene looked…familiar.

Even under the dim light of the only candle in the cave, Sasuke could see the sadness and grief on her face.

When exactly did this happen? Why did it look so familiar to him?

Across the room was a sleeping Uchiha Sasuke.

Sakura walked toward the bed. She sat down on the cushion and longingly gazed at his peaceful face.

She smiled and touched the steel cuffs holding his arms. Then tears rolled down her cheeks.

Sasuke wiped her eyes dry and raised the blanket to cove the sleeping Sasuke's chest.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry.

Sasuke stiffened as the lines placed the image in his memory.

"Everything will be better, I promise," he whispered just as Sakura said them. "Just give Konoha a chance. You still have a family here - a family that still cares for you. Give us a chance. Give **them **a chance. Don't worry."

Tears streamed down his cheeks.

"You won't be annoyed anymore, I promise," Sakura said.

He watched her lean down and press her lips on the sleeping Sasuke's forehead. She slowly raised her head and gazed at his face again.

She smiled. Then her shoulders trembled and tears streamed down her cheeks. She bit her lower lip until it bled, probably trying not to wake him up.

Sasuke was weeping, his eyes fixed at Sakura who had gently combed the sleeping Sasuke's hair using her fingertips.

"You'll be happy now," Sakura whispered. "You will be happy now."

He felt his heart shatter.

It wasn't just a dream after all.


	50. Chapter 50

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll'! _

_You should check out my Ghost Hunt Fanfic "Key,"_** YssaLovesOrange** ^ v ^ _It reached 80 chapters (excluding the sneak peak for its sequel and the other things). Anyway, my apologies. I understand where you're coming from. I'm just so used to writing novels. And there are two other reasons:_

_One: I'm terribly conscious of how my chapters look when online – like if it looks too text-heavy, and too boring to read and stuff. (notice the number of one-liner paragraphs, hehehehe! __) I always watch out for the word count of my updates. Another reason as to why 'Scroll' hasn't "climaxed" yet is because it hasn't really been supposed to _^ v ^. _Like I've said in the previous ANs, I don't answer or unfold answers to questions that quickly because there are facts and clues that need to be laid down. So all those dragging chapters, like Sasuke's dream about Sakura when he rode that ship to Nanashi village, Haru-chan and Sakura's chakra inside her, Houren's friendship with Jirotaiku, Jirotaiku's claims that he could save Sakura (now I'm giving hints. Damn!) – They all mean something in the story and play important roles to 'Scroll's ending._ * v *

_I upload , at least, every week _**moonfairy014.** _As for my country of origin, you're going to have to give me guess. _^ v ^

_Here's this week's chapter, everyone - the big 50! _^ v ^_ Tell me what you think about it!_

* * *

><p>Yoake gazed at the pile of wood Akio and his men were making in the town square from the window of the jail house that overlooked the square.<p>

The light in the village had grown dimmer. The sun was setting, and Sakura's death was dawning.

He turned around to look at Sakura, who was at that moment dangling from the ceiling – chains holding her arms and keeping her feet from touching the floor.

Yoake walked closer to her.

"How does it feel," he asked, brushing a stray lock of pale pink hair away from her face. "To be sentenced to death? To know that you will be burned at the stake?"

He looked into her pale green eyes.

They were blank, just as he expected them to be.

"Oops," he said smiling. "You don't know you're going to be executed today, do you?" He then burst into a maniacal laughter. "Aw, Sakura-san. At least you're with Uchiha Sasuke now, aren't you? The enraged Uchiha Sasuke you **love** so much?"

He suddenly heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said.

The door opened and let Akio in. "The pile is ready," he said. "We've also secured the pole."

"And the fuel?"

"Ready," Akio proudly said. "She's the only one who isn't in the party yet."

Yoake smiled. "Good," he said. "Let's not keep her guests waiting." He looked at Sakura again. "Release her," he said. The chains unwound themselves from her wrists. Sakura's body crashed on the ground.

Akio pulled her up.

Yoake placed his hand on her chest – a white light bursting from the tips of his fingers. Sakura's legs suddenly stretched firmly, supporting her weight against the floor.

Akio sighed in amazement as he stepped away from Sakura. She looked like she was really conscious. "I'm still amazed at this technique of yours," he said. "It's like she's your puppet."

"She is," Yoake said. He then twirled his finger.

A chain dangling from the ceiling stretched down and held Sakura's wrists tightly behind her back. After looping three times around her wrists a part of the chain dissipated – cutting it from the ceiling. The loose end of the chain melted itself to one of the chain parts holding her wrists.

Yoake peeked out the window. The villagers were already around the pile of wood.

"Time to start the party," he said, excitement painting a smile on his face.

Akio led Sakura out of the room.

"Wait!" Yoake said, gliding out to the hall.

Akio and Sakura stopped.

Yoake looked into Sakura's pale eyes. He pointed his finger on one of them. A light shone from its tip.

Akio watched Sakura's pale green eyes turn a whiter shade of grey.

Yoake did the same with the other eye.

"You blinded her?" Akio asked.

"Just in case she finds the loophole in her dream," Yoake said. "Now go, and make sure no one else approaches her – not even the guards."

Akio nodded and led Sakura away.

* * *

><p>Keiko sat staring at little Haru. They were in the living room of Choko's house. Haru was busy nibbling her big toe while Nae, daughter of one of Kaitaro's allies busied herself with folding Haru's clean clothes.<p>

Keiko woke up in Choko's house, with Nae, looking after her.

"They're just in the town square for a meeting," Nae said, noticing the sad expression on Keiko's face. "You know how Lord Houren is."

Keiko nodded, eyes still fixed at Haru. "This is a terrible day," she mumbled.

Nae stiffened. Daiki and Kaitaro said Keiko had been asleep when Houren arrested Sakura. She had been asleep since her sentence was passed.

Could she be talking about Sakura's execution?

Haru-chan began to cry.

Nae gasped and quickly took the infant in her arms. "What is it, Haru-chan? Are you hungry?"

The infant wailed painfully, as if it was hurt.

Nae quickly checked her for any wounds.

"It's her chest," Keiko said. "It's throbbing."

Nae stared confused at Keiko. "How…do you know?"

Keiko just looked blankly at Haru-chan.

Haru-chan wailed louder.

"I-is there something I can do to help her?" Nae asked.

"Otou-san's ointment might help," Keiko said.

Nae nodded. "Najiko-san said she kept one in the medicine cabinet. Take care of Haru-chan for me while I get it, okay?"

Keiko nodded.

Nae handed Keiko the infant and quickly ran further into the house to get the medicine.

Keiko placed her hand on Haru-chan's chest. "Shh," she whispered as Haru-chan wailed in pain. "It's going to be alright." White light burst through Keiko's palm. A green light glowed in Haru's chest.

The infant started to calm down – her brown teary eyes tugging Keiko's heartstrings.

Keiko smiled and kissed Haru's forehead.

* * *

><p>Sasuke opened his eyes.<p>

This time, he saw the snowy ground, several huge tree roots, and a glistening sword made of ice. His skin gradually acknowledged the chill that came with the icy woods.

He looked up and saw Houren holding the sword against his throat.

Sasuke didn't speak. He just watched the grim expression on Houren's face.

Then the sword burst into smoke.

Sasuke raised a brow at him.

Houren only turned away.

Sasuke sat himself up, dark eyes fixed at Houren's retrieting form. "You'll just leave?"

"No point in killing you," Houren said. "If you destroy Konoha, at least Sakura gets to be with her love ones on the other side."

Sasuke didn't reply. He turned his head and noticed the open journal on the snow.

It was turned to a page…with a familiar handwriting.

"If you're so hell-bent on stopping Yoake, why didn't you just stop him yourself?" he asked. "Kill him."

Houren paused – grey eyes staring at the snowy ground. "Two things," he said. "None of my kin can die by my hand. When I kill them or try to kill them is the only time their immortality manifests."

"What's the other thing?" Sasuke asked.

Houren looked up at the dark sky. "Each one of them, no matter how different, good or evil they appear, proves to me that my memories of Keiko were real," he said. "That I did meet the perfect woman in the course of my existence and that I was lucky enough to make her love me, even if it was but a moment in my lifespan."

Houren began to walk away again.

Sasuke sighed. "Don't you get tired?" he asked.

"I do," Houren answered. "But when you love people because you do, you just **can't** get tired. You believe you do. But in reality, you **can't**."

Sasuke smirked. "I'm not going back," he said.

"I didn't expect you to," Houren said. "If you were Jirotaiku, I'd be surprised. But you're Uchiha Sasuke."

Sasuke scowled and glared coldly at the open journal.

"If you head east, you'll reach Konoha in a day and half," Houren said before he disappeared.

Sasuke sat on the snow for a moment, ignoring the numbness that the chill of the snow was giving his legs.

"_If you destroy Konoha, at least Sakura gets to be with her love ones on the other side."_

Sasuke stood and picked the journal up from the snow. He tucked it in the inside of his belt and started to walk away.

* * *

><p>Akio secured Sakura to the pole in the middle of the wood pile.<p>

The villagers eagerly watched him as he stepped away from the pile.

"Any last words?" Yoake asked Sakura.

She remained silent and staring at the wood pile on her feet.

"Justice be done," Yoake said, closing his eyes in prayer…in false prayer.

A soldier poured oil on the pile. Another soldier set the pile a blaze.

The crowd began to cheer as the flames crept up to Sakura's feet.

Black smoke quickly filled the air.

Daiki cursed and covered his nose as the scent of burning flesh touched his senses.

Choko and the others looked away. They couldn't get out of the crowd without alerting the soldiers securing the square, and telling everyone they were insurgents.

Kaitaro watched the flames devour Sakura with a blank expression on his face.

Perhaps Houren will take care of Keiko. Perhaps he could take her to wherever his heirs were supposed to go.

"Daiki," Kaitaro whispered.

Daiki glanced at him.

"Get Choko and the others out of the square."

Daiki stared confused at him. "Why?"

"Just get them out," Kaitaro whispered, his eyes fixed at Sakura.

"You're not doing this alone," Daiki hissed. "I want to help her too."

Kaitaro didn't look at him. He just kept his eyes at Sakura. "There's nothing else we can do to save her," he said. "We can only save the villagers who wish to be saved from all this mess."

Daiki stiffened. "Dr. Kayuki…"

"SAKURA IS INNOCENT!" the doctor shouted, calling the attention of Yoake, Akio, the soldiers and the celebrating crowd. "SHE DIDN'T MAKE THE DISEASE! HOUREN DID! Or rather, YOAKE – THE HEIR OF THE CHIEF THAT YOU ALL DESPISE SO MUCH! THE ONE YOU CALL, 'LORD HOUREN'!"

Yoake's eyes narrowed.

"Dr. Kayuki," a woman in the crowd said, staring frightenedly at him. "It's true then! You have been bewitched!"

"The doctor is defending the murderer!" shouted a wood cutter from the group. "He's committing treason!"

The rest of the crowd only stared baffled at the doctor. They couldn't believe that the man who had been helping them was a villain.

"What if he slipped poison into those medicines he gave us?" whispered one of them.

"Hey, I remember feeling sick after drinking one of his medicines," whispered another. "I vomited a lot on my way home."

Daiki glared at the merchant. "You got yourself overly drunk after you took the medicine he gave you! Of course you'll end up vomiting on your way home! I WAS THERE! I HAD TO DRAG YOUR FILTHY ASS TO YOUR HOUSE!"

"But I don't vomit that much before," the merchant defended. "The doctor made me sick!"

"His medicines don't work!" hissed the others.

"He was planning to kill us, infect us with the disease just like Sakura did," whispered the others.

"I can't believe we trusted him!"

"**SHUT UP!**" Daiki shouted. "**ENOUGH!** You're judging the doctor because of false claims!"

"Choko," Kaitaro hissed.

Choko looked at him.

"Grab everyone you can and run," Kaitaro said, eyes still fixed at Sakura.

Choko shakiliy nodded.

"If that's what you want to belive," the doctor shouted. "**THEN I'LL KILL YOU ALL!**" Kaitaro charged the crowd, causing the villagers to panic, the soldiers to attack, and Choko to pull their allies out of the square.

Daiki stayed with Kaitaro, hurling punches and kicks on the soldiers and the villagers who tried to hit the doctor.

Kaitaro pushed himself through the crowd, ignoring the kicks and hits he was receiving.

He kept his eyes on Sakura, thinking of how he could free her corpse from the bonfire.

Akio was in front of him in no time, glaring at him and raising his fist to hit Kaitaro square on the face.

Kaitaro took the hit, focusing on gripping Akio by the waist, sucking enough chakra from Akio to strengthen his limbs, and-

High-pitched sounds of screaming cranes echoed in the square. Blinding sparks of lightning burst into the entrance of the square, hurling soldiers into the commotion...toward the bon fire.

Yoake swiftly waved his hand, throwing the soldiers away before they fell on Sakura, toppling Kaitaro, Daiki, Akio and the others on the ground.

He glared at where the soldiers flew from.

There stood Sasuke, eyes wide and burning red at the sight of Sakura burning at the stake.

"**SAKURA!**"

Kaitaro gasped, recognizing the voice.

"Sasuke-san?" Daiki asked, pulling himself from the scrambling people on the ground.

The villagers stared shocked at Sasuke – his red eyes glaring icily at Yoake. Bright sparks of lightning danced around him.

Yoake smirked. "Well hello, Uchiha-sama," he said. "I didn't know you'd be here to watch Sakura die."

"**DAMN YOU,**" Sasuke hissed, before he vanished - a furious gust of wind blazing toward the flames.

Yoake waved his hand, the flames devouring Sakura suddenly attacking the wind and revealing Sasuke who had already released several shurikens toward Yoake.

Yoake raised his hand – a barrier of ice bursting up from the snowy ground just before the shurikens hit his face. The barrier absorbed the shurikens and burst into snow crystals.

Sasuke landed beside the pile of people that included Daiki, Kaitaro and Akio who were staring in amazement at the battle of magic.

"Daiki!" Kaitaro shouted. "**FREE HER!**"

Daiki nodded and quickly ran to Sakura.

Akio, still on the ground, swiftly grabbed Daiki's ankle.

Yoake sent icicles on Sasuke's way.

Sasuke swiftly unsheathed his katana and sliced the icicles. He noticed Daiki's attempt to free himself from Akio's iron grip and swiftly threw three kunais to help him.

The kunais plunged themselves on Akio's hand, making him scream in pain.

Daiki pulled his ankle away and continued to run toward Sakura, only to be blocked by Yoake.

Sasuke was suddeny beside Daiki, slashing Yoake with his katana.

Yoake glared at Sasuke as the blade slashed his kimono. "Idiot," he hissed.

"**Liar**," Sasuke hissed back.

The snow on Yoake's feet quickly stretched out like a wave, attacking Sasuke and sending him back up in the air.

Daiki ran to Sakura while Yoake was busy watching for Sasuke's next move. He jumped into the blazing fire, pushing Sakura to the snow.

Sasuke flipped in the air and firmly landed his feet on the ground.

Six soldiers attacked him, their weapons all poised to slice him.

Sasuke vanished again.

The soldiers stiffened. They frantically looked around, swords raised to defend themselves.

Sasuke reappeared in a flash, swiftly taking the soldiers down in one slash. Another group of soldiers attacked him.

Yoake decided to ignore Daiki's attempts to save Sakura.

She was going to die anyway.

He instead raised his arms to the side, forming another, but this time, giant wave of snow behind him. He clapped his hands together and as the other group of soldiers fell on the ground, the wave of snow attacked Sasuke like an enraged avalanche.

The avalanche covered even Akio and Kaitaro on the ground, suffocating the other villagers and soldiers that were with them.

The people around the square screamed and ran for their lives. The remaining soldiers kept them from escaping – hitting them with the sheath of their swords, hurling punches and kicks even on the women, the children and the aged villagers.

Kaitaro struggled to free himself from the clutches of the thick snow – concentrating his energy in his limbs and thrashing his way through the hardened ice, gasping for air.

Akio did the same, breaking the ice with his fists and crawling out of the frost. He saw Kaitaro crawl to reach Sakura.

Akio quickly grasped the doctor's wrist – the black of his eyes swallowing its whites.

Kaitaro snapped his head to face him, sending him a glare Akio didn't think the timid doctor could give.

"**Don't you even dare**," Kaitaro hissed.

But Akio didn't let him go.

Kaitaro clenched his fists, oddly making Akio cry out in pain.

Akio released him, stumbling on the ice as he tried to contain the burning pain that surged in his chest. He looked up, his vision slightly blurred.

Kaitaro had rushed to Daiki, who already had his fair share of second degree burns.

Akio cursed. How could the doctor know such technique?

Yoake scoffed as Kaitaro covered the blazing fire with snow. Daiki was already busy trying to unchain Sakura's bleeding arms.

Much of her legs were reddish and swollen. Some patches of skin were charred to a brown hue.

"You can't save her," Yoake said.

Kaitaro glared up at him. "Then I'll kill you."

Yoake snorted. "Really doctor..? Isn't your job supposed to keep people alive?"

"You're not exactly human, are you?" Kaitaro hissed, Daiki pounding stones on the sizzling chains charring Sakura's wrist.

"You can't defeat me," Yoake said proudly. "I'm Houren's heir."

Before Kaitaro could retort, a massive wave of snow exploded from the square, stunning him and Yoake.

Luckily Akio had already stood up - yelling and hitting the blocks of snow flying their way. The blocks crumbled to pieces before it could hit Yoake and Kaitaro.

"Let's get her away from here," Kaitaro hissed at Daiki.

Daiki breathily nodded, trying to ignore the burns on his cheeks, arms and legs.

They lifted Sakura's body away with the wood pole that kept her in place. They stopped at a corner, too weak to take her far.

Akio glared at the massive ball of black flames that seemed to have thrown the ice on their way.

Yoake frowned.

The flames slowly ebbed away, revealing an angry...**furious** Sasuke – lightning dancing frantically around his katana.

Akio smirked. "So you play with lights," he said. "That doesn't mean you stand a chance against me. In case you haven't been informed, I'm also part of family."

Sasuke smirked back. "Yeah," he replied. "You were the family mutt."

Akio growled – his eyes pitch black and glaring coldly at Sasuke. He hunched, poised to pounce on Sasuke.

"Aww," Sasuke crooned. "Did I offened the brainless poodle?"

Akio snarled leaping to the air – his robes exploding into shreds. In his place was a black being with limbs as long as a lamp post, a snout that resembled a dog's, and eyes that resembled a void.

Sasuke met the attack, his chidori-enforced katana poised to chop the beast to pieces.

Kaitaro shakily examined the sizzling chains that had grown slightly cold with the snow.

It was just as he feared – they were Chains of Agony – steel-looking chains that fed on its captive's blood and suffering.

"Can…you…free her?" Daiki asked, gasping for air. He covered his burns with snow to numb the pain.

"No," Kaitaro breathed. "I…I can't."

"But **I** can," said a familiar voice from behind them.

Daiki froze as Yoake's twin - well he had white hair but he looked just like Yoake - walked to Sakura.

"Houren," Kaitaro greeted him, sighing in relief.

"Houren..?" Daiki asked, confused. "Is he on our side?"

"Of course not," Houren answered, glaring at him. "I'm here to kill you and chop all of you to pieces." He then turned to look at Kaitaro. "Patch that idiot, up will you, son?"

"Y-yes," Kaitaro said smiling at his grand father. He rushed to Daiki, and for the first time did what Houren had taught him to do – heal using the light from his hands.

Houren knelt down to examine the chains.

A massive explosion swallowed the square, earning shrieks of terror from the villagers.

Daiki and Kaitaro crouched down on the ground, prepared to be hit by smoke and debris from the explosion.

But none of it reached them.

They slowly looked up and stiffened at the dark clouds that swallowed the square. Houren was on his feet, holding the shiled that had protected them from the explosion.

This was the point where he hoped Sasuke was as strong as Sakura told him he was.

Loud growls echoed in the darkness.

Yoake was smiling.

**This** was killing two birds, with one stone.

* * *

><p><em>This is just to clarify on the AN for <em>**YssaLovesOrange **_because the things I said there might have came out wrong. _

_Mentioning "Key" on my AN earlier is just supposed to tell you all that I've experienced writing quite a long fanfic here on the site. But I wasn't bragging about the number of reviews I had from that story. And it shouldn't mean that I'm happy about writing that much chapters in a story. Some of my ANs in "Key" should prove it. _

_I just wanted to let you know that I'm not trying to drag this story this long to get attention. I'm just writing it based on the two things I discussed earlier. _

_I understand if it's getting too boring to read. I don't think I have to the right to tell you it isn't boring, just because I wrote it. I just wanted you all to know why this story has reached this length._

_I can't promise that my way of writing this story will change after this discussion on the length and how boring it's becoming is through. But I really appreciate the time that you all have spent in reading the updates to this story. I really learned a lot from your reviews. _

_THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH AGAIN! _* v * _And I'm really sorry for not meeting all the standards you've set. I really learned a lot from them though. _


	51. Chapter 51

Sasuke's sharingan eyes flared at the dark smoke surrounding them.

When he met Akio's attack with his katana, he was sure he cut his enemy's torso in half…until it exploded and created a barrier of smoke around them.

If there were things he learned about the potential enemies in Nanashi Village it was that one, they manipulated chakra in a whole new level; two, they could be pretty unpredictable because of that fact; and three, his sharingan might not be as useful as it should be when it came to their own style of genjutstu.

Sasuke quickly felt the air in his right shift.

He hastily wielded his katana, hitting a monstrous bony arm attacking him from the smoke. The arm was hurled back, but not wounded.

Sasuke felt another attack from his left and defended himself from its hungry sharp claws.

Two.

The smoke around him could be sucking chakra out of him that very minute. He would need to attack Akio before his chakra levels dropped…or before he drained what little chakra Sakura had left.

Three. Another arm attacked him from below him. He jumped up in the air to avoid it.

Sasuke's temper flared. He remembered what Sakura looked like when he reached the town square – tied helplessly to a pole in a burning pyre...**Yoake** should be in those flames, not Sakura. And he will make sure Yoake died the most horrific death.

Four. Another arm stretched from above him – claws ready to stab his skull. Sasuke vanished, the claws digging deep into the ground.

Akio felt the air around him shift. Uchiha was moving…flying…around him. Then sparks of warm light appeared in his vision – balls of fire flying toward him.

Akio snarled throwing them back with his new limbs – limbs Yoake had given him for being a highly esteemed cousin. He was a bastard, an estranged son of one of the branch members of the clan. But only the chief and Yoake's half brother, Hideaki knew about it.

Another set of fire balls attacked him from various directions. He growled and hurled each one of them away.

He was taken into the household as a servant. He was tasked to give Yoake his daily ration of food. Yoake treated him as a friend…a brother…something Hideaki didn't do. Kaitaro was kind to him. Hideaki didn't talk to him. He just stared at him like he was a parasite that had to die.

"Why do you hate him anyway?" he remembered Kaitaro ask Hideaki one day in the garden.

"He's a murderer."

Akio felt his blood boil. It wasn't his fault. Hideaki's mother was crazy. She wasn't supposed to be part of the family. That was why his mother poisoned the chief's wife – something only he and Hideaki knew.

Everyone else thought Akio's sick mother fell in shock when she found Hideaki's mother dead in the bedroom.

Akio felt Sasuke swiftly move around him again – the balls of fire he hurled back and vanquished flying back at him in greater numbers. He growled. Uchiha was a coward.

So when Yoake told him about killing Hideaki, Akio was ecstatic. Though it took him years to finally see Hideaki suffer the death he deserved, Akio felt grateful that the honor of guiding Hideaki to the grave was given to him.

Yoake needed a sacrifice to awaken his powers as Houren's heir, according to the artifact they found. Hideaki was that sacrifice. In return for ripping Hideaki's heart out and for Akio's loyalty, Yoake gave him power.

Just as Akio hurled the last fireball back, flames flew toward him from almost everywhere. He tried to leap away and escape, only to find that wires…layers of wires…trapping him in place. It was on those wires that the flames crept swiftly to attack him.

Sasuke watched Akio growl in fury – his limbs thrashing to free himself from the flaming wires.

He was up in the air, his katana tucked in the saya leaning straight against his back and his eyes aiming for Akio's head.

Akio glared up at Sasuke, who was diving head first with his hand ready to pull out his katana. Akio growled again, this time shattering the earth below him.

Sasuke cursed as dust and smoke filled his vision. He quickly pulled out his katana, slashing the massive flying debris that took Akio's place.

He landed on the ground half kneeling – the katana slipping back into its scabbard that was already leaning against Sasuke's waist.

His eyes quickly glared at the smoke around him. The flaming wires he set up were falling on the ground like leaves.

Sasuke kept his ears on guard. Akio was half the size of the nine-tailed fox demon. There was **no way** he could vanish that quickly.

Then he felt something looming above his head. He gasped as he felt the air press against his back. He quickly pulled out his katana, sliding his feet to the rhythm of his wrist, and slashing the entity that was about to fall over him.

Akio's open mouth was slashed in two – his face bursting into smoke.

Sasuke cursed as the idea hit him **hard. **

The smoke…the darkness…**everything **around him was part of Akio.

Sasuke began to whirl the katana around, defending himself from every claw, limb, and bone that emerged from the smoke.

He smirked, feeling the faint chakra signature he came for beyond the void he was in.

Akio wasn't sucking his chakra like he expected him too. Perhaps that was one thing Yoake didn't teach him.

* * *

><p>"Houren, can you see them?" Kaitaro anxiously asked his grandfather who was gazing out at the massive dome of smoke.<p>

Much of the dust and smoke had cleared. And from where they stood they could see the remaining soldiers and fright-stricken villagers in the square, the corpses of men, women, and children who didn't survive the explosion, and Yoake standing in front of the dome of smoke – a smirk painted clearly on his face.

"Yes," Houren answered. He raised his finger to point at a part of the dome. "That's Akio's butt right there."

"HOUREN!"

"But that's really it, right there. And there's his pe-"

"**OI!**" Daiki shouted.

Houren and Kaitaro stared at Daiki.

"I was going to say pectoral muscles," Houren explained, still looking serious at Daiki.

Daiki tried hard not to blush. "You look like Yoake, you know Dr. Kayuki, Dr. Kayuki can use magic to heal, you're supposed to help Sakura, **AND SAKURA IS DYING**! MIND FILLING ME IN ON WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

Kaitaro turned to Houren. "You have to unchain her."

Houren sighed and knelt back down to look at Sakura. "I'll need a knife."

Daiki quickly knelt down beside him, handing him a knife from his boot.

"Very hygienic," Houren muttered as he held the blade in his bare hand. He closed his palm, making sure the sharp end of the blade touched his flesh. Then he quickly pulled the blade away from his hand, pouring blood on the sizzling chains.

"WHAT THE-"

The blood began to melt the chains – the scent of burning flesh drifting from the decaying metal.

"Your blood is acid?" Daiki gasped.

"One more idiotic word from this idiot and I will cut his head off," Houren said looking at Kaitaro.

Kaitaro ignored him and instead checked Sakura's pulse. "She's alive," he said. "I'll start healing her burns." He looked up at Houren. "Can you save her?"

Houren looked grimly at Sakura's wounded face.

"Well?" Daiki said. "Can you save her?"

Houren placed his hand on Sakura's chest – a green light flashing from his palm.

"Houren..?" Kaitaro asked.

"He can't save her," they heard Yoake's voice echo from the square.

Daiki and Kaitaro looked up to see Yoake smirking haughtily at them.

"Sadly, not even killing me will save her, dear cousin," Yoake said.

Kaitaro glared at Yoake. He stood up, fully decided on getting the justice his wife and the innocent villagers who died in the plague deserved. He didn't care about dying anymore.

"Sit down," Houren ordered.

"I've had enough," Kaitaro hissed.

"So have I," Houren answered.

"Then let me pass through this barrier!"

"Kaitaro," Houren said looking up at him. "I chose you as my heir not just because you have the gift."

Kaitaro and Daiki stared confused at him.

"Stay," Houren answered. "Have you no faith in the man you believed would save Sakura?"

Kaitaro stiffened and looked at the black dome in front of them. He could hear nothing but the furious growls of Akio.

Does he think Sasuke will die in the end?

Kaitaro looked down at Sakura. "He killed my wife," he hissed.

"He killed most of my family," Houren said. "Leave this to me."

Kaitaro only looked at him – his trembling fists tightly clenched in fury.

"Heal her wounds," Houren said.

Kaitaro closed his eyes, knelt down beside Sakura and concentrated on gathering chakra from the woods.

Yoake laughed. "You've always been a coward, Kaitaro," he said.

Kaitaro cursed as white light flashed in his hands. He opened his eyes and glared at Yoake. He lifted his glowing hands, commanding the snow around him to rise-

Another explosion, this time coming from the dome, shook the earth. Kaitaro and Daiki watched the dark dome burst like a pricked bubble revealing a towering monster and Sasuke, up in the air. There were sparks of electricity everywhere.

The monster hunched over the ground as Sasuke landed on the ground behind him.

Kaitaro watched Sasuke face the monster, pulling out his katana from its saya. The blade proudly glimmered behind the length of his outstretched right arm – sparks of lightning making it glow amidst the darkness of the town square.

Houren smirked as he watched Sasuke from the corner of his eyes. Akio was given the ability to morph into a fluid – to a dark smoke that devoured anyone who feared it. The only way to get out of his grasp was to make him turn back into his solid form.

Akio couldn't tolerate that much pain. For Sasuke to cause a blast that massive, he must have used quite a huge voltage of electricity, or lightning, or whatever it was he was using. Too bad Akio didn't learn how to use another human's chakra. He was after all, only adopted into the clan.

Sasuke watched Akio turn to face him. He could see the burns on the monster's deformed face and skin…smell the stench of its burning flesh…

Sasuke glared icily at him.

…Just like what Akio did to Sakura…

Then Akio was on his feet, charging Sasuke with a deafening growl – the wind around him formed into spears rushing to stab Sasuke.

Daiki watched Sasuke skillfully wave his katana in swift curves and waves, slashing the almost invisible spears that the giant hurled against him. Sasuke slid closer to the monster with every move he made.

Then the monster leaped up, stretched his sharp claws and crossed his arms over his chest. From its body flew sharp white shards…bones?

Sasuke hit most of them with his katana, hurling them away from him and into the ground. But they were too many and too quick. Some of the shards hit his arms, legs, and even scraped his cheeks.

"SASUKE!" he heard Kaitaro yell as he leaped up and slashed another set of shards. He waved his katana and saw Akio's barged teeth inches away from his face…his claws stabbing Sasuke's torso.

Daiki gasped as the monster buried his claws on the ground, pinning Sasuke by his chest.

That was it. Sasuke, their only hope of defeating Yoake was dead.

Yoake smirked. Akio howled in triumph.

Sasuke's body burst into smoke – a log replacing his corpse.

Everyone else in the square stiffened. Houren just rolled his eyes.

"Up here!" Akio heard Sasuke from above him. He looked up to see Sasuke's lightning enforced katana ready to slash his neck.

Sasuke landed his feet on the ground, his katana outstretched on his side. He swiftly slipped the katana back to its scabbard, the lightning surrounding it vanishing as it slid further into the saya.

And when the hilt touched the scabbard, the monster's head touched the ground spilling blood all over the square.

Sasuke looked up at Yoake who was already glaring daggers at him.

Daiki swallowed. He suddenly felt thankful that Sasuke wasn't his enemy anymore.

Yoake's scowl slowly turned into a smile as Akio's body dropped on the ground.

Sasuke kept a straight face, preparing himself for another avalanche from Yoake.

"**NOOO!**" a woman shrieked.

* * *

><p>Haru-chan's scream echoed in the house. Her cheeks were drenched with tears. Her face reflected nothing but agony.<p>

"Haru-chan," Nae crooned, anxiously cradling the infant in her arms. "What's wrong? Haru-chan…"

She had tried feeding her, but she just pushed the bottle away. Nae just changed her diaper so needing a change could not be the reason why she burst into tears. Nae had also applied ointment on her chest, and even her tummy. It was supposed to warm her and keep her from tummy aches.

Keiko watched Haru grimly. She took a deep breath before she stood up from her seat on the floor and approached Nae.

"Can I hold her?" Keiko asked.

Nae, realizing how Keiko seemed to know what was happening, handed her the infant. "Do you know what's wrong with her?"

Keiko held the screaming infant against her chest. She sat down and placed her hand on Haru's chest.

Nae gasped as a warm green light glowed from Keiko's palm.

Haru's cries slowly stopped, her face looking like she was telling Keiko about something that hurt her.

"There now," Keiko hushed. "It's okay. We won't let anyone hurt you."

* * *

><p>Sasuke quickly stepped back, avoiding the screaming woman who suddenly attacked him.<p>

She fell crying on the blood-stained ground. "**HELP ME! HELP ME!**"

More villagers walked into the square, all of them screaming for help and attacking Sasuke.

Sasuke avoided their attempts to punch him, kick him, slap him… He stared confused at the villagers as they tripped on the ground, wailing in fear.

"What the hell are they doing?" Daiki gasped. "Couldn't they still understand that Yoake is the enemy?"

Kaitaro's face looked grimly at the square. The villagers and the soldiers ran to attack Sasuke. Those who were buried in the snow crawled out to the surface wanting nothing but to kill him.

"**WHAT'S HAPPENING?**"

"**MY BODY!**"

"**WE'RE POSSESSED!**"

"**HELP!**"

Then they were throwing stones and knives, and slashing swords at Sasuke. Sasuke just avoided their attempts, staring confused at the frightened and baffled expressions on his attacker's faces.

"_The first strain of the illness was a basic chakra manipulation technique. By that I mean a basic step to manipulating another person's chakra._ _Yoake_ _planted some of his chakra into the chakra circulatory system of many of the villagers…The only way to cure it was to use chakra to confine the parasitic chakra."_

…Confine…the parasitic chakra…**confine**…

Sasuke's eyes went wide. He glanced at Houren who he was sure was in the corner with Sakura, and saw him looking sadly back at him.

"**STOP!**" cried an old man about to stab Sasuke with one of the spears from Akio's body. "**HELP ME, PLEASE!**"

Sasuke quickly skipped out of the man's way, immediately facing the other villagers, the remaining soldiers, and several dead-looking people trying to kill him. The more he avoided them, the more skillful each of them became.

Soon, he would have no choice but to fight them, and probably kill them all.

He saw Yoake across the square – a wide smile on his face.

Sasuke glared at him as he slipped away from the slash of a sword. The shrieking crowd began to attack him faster than they did before, as if their bodies had enhanced their reflexes with every defensive move he made.

Upon hitting a woman at the back of her neck to push her down the ground, the people around him attacked him at once – each of them holding a weapon or two, most of the mstruggling to stop themselves.

Sasuke stepped back, currents of electricity quickly filling the air around him – each spark and strand paralyzing the screaming villagers.

Yoake burst into laughter. "Uchiha Sasuke," he said. "You're being too kind."

The shrieks grew louder.

Sasuke froze as he watched the villagers' limbs move and contort in inconceivable ways, breaking their bones. Their arms and legs began to stretch…to grow…into something similar to Akio's. Their necks followed, their faces contorting to form snouts, their teeth growing into lengthy fangs-

Soon all of them appeared like smaller versions of the monster Sasuke beheaded.

Daiki swallowed. He looked down at Kaitaro who had focused on healing the burns on Sakura's wrists.

"Is this…Is **this…**what you meant when you said something horrible would happen once Yoake was provoked?" he asked.

Kaitaro closed his eyes.

"Is there a way to save them?" Daiki asked.

Kaitaro remained silent.

"IS THERE A WAY TO SAVE THEM?"

"Kill them," Houren answered.

Daiki froze.

The monsters growled and thrashed against the electric currents keeping them in place until they were able to move again. They quickly rushed to kill Sasuke.

"Kill them," Sasuke heard Houren's voice echo inside his head. "Set them free."

Sasuke unsheathed his katana.

If the only thing Sakura could do was confine the parasitic chakra, Houren was right. The only way to help the villagers attacking him was to kill them all.

Sasuke swiftly slashed each monster that attacked him, tearing necks, stabbing chests, tearing torsos, slashing heads-

Daiki looked away at the blood-drenched town square, his clenched fists trembling. Everyone he wanted to protect…

He gasped. "Choko-san and the others!"

"They're safe," Houren answered, his eyes fixed at the light in his hand that was still on Sakura's chest.

He kept Choko and the others in an abyss where they would lay unconscious until everything was finished. He couldn't let them get back to their homes, not when Keiko was still too young to protect them all from Yoake's puppets.

Keiko can handle Haru, but a full-grown human turning into a ghoul would be too much for her.

Sasuke was bathed in blood by the time he beheaded the last monster – a short one that could have been one of Keiko's playmates. His blood-red eyes glared icily at Yoake.

"Tired?" Yoake asked, smiling at Sasuke who was slightly gasping for air.

"**Damn you**," Sasuke hissed before he charged to send Yoake to hell.

Yoake burst into laughter.

Just as Sasuke raised his katana to slash Yoake in half, he felt something grab his feet. He slammed on the ground, dropping his katana. Whatever grabbed him was already dragging him back.

He winced and turned his head to see what it was that stopped him. His eyes went wide at the sight of another monster, as big as Akio.

But it wasn't its size that shocked him.

It was the chunks of flesh that formed it – pieces of body parts he slashed into pieces, morphed with Akio's remains to form a headless monster. The severed human faces of the villagers contorted in agony stared painfully at Sasuke – each one of them plastered on the monster's chest.

What grabbed Sasuke's legs were hands – Akio's hands morphed with the arms of the humans Sasuke slayed. Each human hand grasped his leg, his clothes, his mercy.

Yoake's laughter echoed in the square. Screams and shrieks of horror, and furious growls filled the gloomy air.

Daiki fell down on his knees – his jaw dropped in shock.

Kaitaro could only stare at the horror in front of them.

Houren looked grimly at Yoake who was still laughing proudly at himself.

Sasuke swallowed.

"Help me!"

"My baby!"

"Mama!"

"Help!"

"Please!"

Sasuke could feel their cold hands tugging the ends of his pants, dragging his sandals, pulling his leg… And it gave him chills – **horrible** chills.

"Imagine it, Uchiha," Yoake began. "A monster like that for your own, only yours would have the face of everyone who wronged you in Konoha. Wouldn't it be just grand?"


	52. Chapter 52

_Hi! I know I promised to try to upload more last week, but I really couldn't. I went through tons of stress - mental, emotional, physical...name it I had it - last week. Anyway, I'm re-uploading this chapter with the part that should be included last week. _

_I'm still very busy this week so I'm not sure how I'll be uploading the next chapter. For those who got confused with the quotes in this chapters (the ones from Sasuke's mom and dad and other stuff) they were taken from the Naruto series (or manga...not sure anymore). I don't know if they were translated differently in your country but long story short, they were supposed to have come from the past episodes of Naruto. _

_Um thank you so much for still reading this, and for your patience. Here's the chapter._

* * *

><p>Sasuke cursed and kicked the flailing arms away.<p>

Their pleading faces were beginning to tug his conscience. He was starting to regret what he did to the villagers and it was **not** good. Times such as those needed no mercy – no moment of weakness.

One act of frailty could mean his death…Sakura's death.

He struggled to crawl away from the monster. His limbs were trembling. Beads of sweat were sliding down his forehead.

Their cries were slowly making their way into his nerves.

"HELP!"

"SAVE ME!"

"Okaa-san!"

"MY BABY! PLEASE SAVE MY BABY!"

Sasuke winced. His heart was pounding hard against his chest. Their cries were making him dizzy. He felt the earth swerve underneath him. He tried to keep his eyes on the ground. But his vision was starting to flicker…to darken…to show him things that shouldn't be in the town square.

"That's not it… Your father is the representative of the whole clan… If the clan is in a bad position, he must protect it."

Sasuke gasped at the sound of his mother's voice.

"Itachi is the older of the two of you. The job of looking after the clan must be left to him. Your father is the supervisor of that job so that's probably why he pays more attention to your brother."

"I will say one thing."

His father's voice echoed in the square.

"From now on, walk your own path not in the footsteps of your brother."

"But the conversations in here alone," his mother's voice rang in his ear. "When your father talks to me, he only talks about you, and because of that… he's always awkward with you."

Sasuke's eyes went wide with fear.

The Uchiha compound slowly materialized in the town square – its pavements replacing the blood-stained ground he was on…the ghost-houses replacing the remaining wooden houses of Nanashi village…

"People live their lives bound by what they accept as correct and true."

Itachi's voice suddenly filled his ears.

"That's how they define 'reality'. But what does it mean to be 'correct' or 'true'? Merely vague concepts… their 'reality' may all be a mirage. Can we consider them to simply be living in their own world, shaped by their beliefs?"

"In the ninja world, those who break the rules are trash, that's true."

Sasuke then heard Kakashi's voice.

"…But those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."

Sasuke cried out, shutting his eyes…telling himself he was trapped in an illusion. With each voice he heard came a paralyzing twinge inside his skull. He yelled out in pain as his eyes registered images that shouldn't be there.

His father's lifeless body on the wooden floor of their house with his mother's corpse…the last smile Itachi gave Sasuke when his katana drew his brother's last breath…the faces of the people he killed for revenge… Naruto's face when Sasuke thought he had sent him to hell with him…

"I… I love you with all my heart!"

Sasuke froze at the sound of Sakura's voice.

"If you were to stay here with me, there would be no regrets… because every day we'd do something fun, we'd be happy I swear!… I would do anything for you! so… Please just stay with me!"

"You may have the same eyes as your brother."

Danzo's voice filled the air.

"But you perceive things differently. You do not value Itachi's sacrifice."

"If you attack Konoha , I will have to fight you."

Sasuke heard Naruto's voice. He frantically looked up, trying to find him.

"So save up your hatred and take it all on me, I'm the only one who can take it! It's the only thing I can do! I will shoulder your hatred and die with you! Because I'm your friend!"

"Dobe," he breathed, remembering the memory.

"…You just throw your anger at anything and everything," Danzo's voice echoed again. "You have wasted the Uchiha clan's sacrifice."

"I…j-ust wan-t-ted," Sakura's voice whispered in the chilling breeze. "…Y-you to f-feel…h-how it…is to…live…in t-the pre-sent…for…y-your fu-t-ture… G-give you…a-n-nother ch-chance…t-to live…"

"I don't look to the future any more."

Sasuke cursed as his own voice filled the air.

"…Only the past."

Then he saw Sakura's bloody corpse on the pavement of the Uchiha compound…her green eyes looking dead at him…tears streaming down her purple cheeks.

Sasuke stared shocked at her. He could see the burn marks on her skin, the lesions he covered with bandages, the stab made by his own katana in that nightmare he had one night…his nose smelled the scent of burning flesh…and blood...

"I do understand what you want me to do," he heard his voice again. And he remembered where, when and to whom he said those words. "It's probably because you're my older brother that you feel the need to put me on the right path. But it's probably because I'm your younger brother that I'll never stop, no matter what you say."

Sasuke swallowed. His head was spinning with memories…Memories he didn't want to see…

"As you'll always exist to protect the village… so will I to destroy it."

* * *

><p>Daiki, Kaitaro and Houren heard Sasuke wail loud in pain. He was on the ground, trembling and trying to crush something in his skull. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. His cries echoed around them.<p>

"What the hell is happening to him?" Daiki anxiously said, watching Sasuke bang his head on the ground.

"The screams," Kaitaro gasped, eyeing the monster that was merely watching Sasuke suffer. The faces of the villagers were twisting in pain – their screams complimenting Sasuke's cries.

Houren cursed, feeling something in Sakura's chest suddenly suck a massive amount of chakra from his outstretched arm. He saw his limb flicker – shifting from translucent to opaque.

He quickly placed his hand on the ground, concentrating on getting enough chakra from around him to sustain him and Sakura, and in the process Sasuke.

"He's trapped in some illusion," Kaitaro said, his hands still trying to heal Sakura's burns.

"HOW CAN WE HELP HIM?" Daiki asked, watching Yoake smirk and take a step forward to Sasuke's writhing form.

"I-I don't know," Kaitaro shakily answered, looking away and focusing on helping Sakura.

"This is stupid," Daiki hissed before he attacked the translucent barrier in front of him. He found himself up in the air, thrown back hard to the ground. "What the hell," he muttered, massaging his aching back. "That's solid?" He then turned to Houren. "OI!" he shouted. "Let me out!"

Houren ignored him.

Kaitaro looked at his grandfather. "Houren," he called.

"You can't help him," Houren said glaring at Sakura's unconscious face. "What he's seeing are fragments in his past – fragments he's been unconsciously running away from for quite a while. The only way for him to get out of that illusion is to choose what he wants to do with his life."

Kaitaro winced and looked back down at Sakura. Her wounds were barely healed.

"Why do you know so much about these things?" Daiki asked, guardedly eyeing Houren.

"I can make a similar monster to shut you up this very minute," Houren hissed, glaring coldly at Daiki.

Daiki stiffened and looked away – his eyes drifting toward Sasuke. He gasped as he saw Yoake wield a glass sword from the air.

"HE'S GOING TO KILL HIM!" Daiki exclaimed.

Kaitaro and Houren looked up to see Yoake, stepping closer to Sasuke – a sword poised to cut Sasuke's throat.

* * *

><p>Sasuke looked up, feeling someone walking toward him.<p>

"Why do you deny me?" he heard his voice echo in the Uchiha compound.

He winced and tried to clear his blurred vision. Sasuke was sure the imposter in his dreams was standing before him.

"I am you as you are me," the imposter said.

"Get away from me," he hissed, feeling too weak to stand up.

"Get away from you?" the imposter mocked. "**I** am **you**! I am your strength, Sasuke. I am the source of your power! You wouldn't survive this long without me. You should be angry that whore separated you from me. She made you **weak**! She made you that puppet you are today!"

"Shut up!" Sasuke yelled glaring icily at the Sasuke standing across from him.

"**You** shut up!" the imposter hissed. "You forgot what you were born to do! **You** forgot your mission! YOU FORGOT IT ALL BECAUSE OF THAT WORTHLESS-"

"SHUT UP!" Sasuke shouted, standing up and tackling the imposter to the ground. "YOU ARE NOT ME! **YOU ARE NOT ME! I DIDN'T KILL SAKURA!**"

"**REALLY?**" the imposter sneered as Sasuke strangled him.

"I will instead leave you to die by your illness," Sasuke heard his voice echo in the dark. He stiffened.

The imposter smiled widely at him.

"I will let you face the horrible death you fear to face. And don't you worry. I will make sure **everyone** in Konoha dies the same way you do."

"That was you, wasn't it?" the imposter said, raising a brow at him.

Sasuke's clenched fists trembled as pain surged into his chest. He yelled and hurled the imposter away from him.

The imposter laughed as he lay flat on the ground. "Sasuke, you really think **this** is you? Weren't you born for a bigger purpose?"

Sasuke winced and punched the ground.

"To sever the bond that destroyed the clan? But here you are, fighting to save who? The enemy! …The witch that took your power away from you!"

"_I…j-ust wan-t-ted…Y-you to f-feel…h-how it…is to…live…in t-the pre-sent…for…y-your fu-t-ture… G-give you…a-n-nother ch-chance…t-to live…"_

Sasuke stared at the ground.

_"I don't look to the future any more…only the past."_

"_Sasuke-kun!"_

" _I just feel sad when I think about how we all wanted to be with each other again, and now that we can do it…we just end up not being with each other."_

"_I can forgive you…But I can never forgive Konoha!"_

"_I think I know why Sasuke can't stop himself from wanting revenge…It's…scary. I can't believe he survived it for so long. I really can't blame him for hating everyone."_

Sasuke felt the imposter stand beside him – a hand reached out to him.

"This isn't you," the imposter said. "You are not you without me. Come. Let's stop this idiocy and do what we were born to do."

Sasuke slowly lifted his gaze away from the ground and looked at the imposter's hand.

_"I know the four of us have worked together. And for a while, I thought I could choose that path instead… but in the end… I've decided on revenge. That's always been my purpose of living."_

Sasuke took the imposter's outstretched hand.

* * *

><p>Houren winced as pain surged through the veins of his arm.<p>

"Houren?" Kaitaro anxiously asked.

"Do you remember the prophecy I gave Yoake?" he asked.

"You give prophecies?" Daiki asked. "You're an oracle?"

Houren ignored him.

"I do," Kaitaro answered. "Has it…changed?"

"Well, Uchiha?" Yoake asked Sasuke who had fallen silent after a while. "Shall we work as a team?"

Daiki and Kaitaro froze at the question. They turned to look at the scene.

Sasuke was still on his knees but he no longer seemed in pain. He was quiet…as if in a trance.

Yoake was watching Sasuke – his sword lax and pointed at the blood-drenched ground.

"I-is he out of the illusion?" Daiki asked staring confused at Sasuke and Yoake.

Sasuke slowly stood up. The monster behind him howled in triumph.

Yoake smiled widely.

Sasuke's sharingan eyes looked at apathetically at him.

Kaitaro heard his heart beat frantically against his chest.

Was Sasuke going to kill them?

Yoake reached out his hand, his eyes looking proudly at Sasuke.

Sasuke reached out to take Yoake's hand.

"**Shit**," Daiki hissed.

Kaitaro froze, eyes fixed at Sasuke's apathetic face.

Houren just looked down at Sakura. Her face was looking more purple than pale. Kaitaro had been trying to close her wounds for quite a long while. But without her own chakra helping her body recover and commanding her platelets to clot, it barely made her better.

Add to that the brewing mass of chakra Sasuke's body was taking from her…

Sasuke grasped Yoake's hand.

Yoake chuckled. The dead stare from Sasuke's blood-red eyes was the sign of his victory.

"Traitor," Sasuke quietly said before a blinding light burst out of his hand.

The next thing Kaitaro and Daiki saw was a blinding blast. Daiki was sure he saw Yoake's smiling face contort before everything was devoured by the explosion.

Pained screams and howls echoed with the ear-shattering blasts and shrieking sounds of electric sparks surrounding the square. They were sure the monster exploded into bits.

And sure enough they saw no sign of the monster as soon as the wind blew the smoke and dust away…just Sasuke standing defensively with a sword made of lightning in his hand.

Yoake seemed to have vanished as well, but following the gaze of Sasuke's scarlet eyes they spotted Yoake perched on the roof of the jail house…or what remained of the building.

He wore a scowl on his face – the hand he extended to Sasuke not long ago, burned and bleeding. There were also bloods stains on his torso.

Daiki sighed in relief, his knees dropping to the ground.

Sasuke caused the explosion then. He tried to kill Yoake.

He was still on their side after all!

Kaitaro winced at the scattered flesh and blood on the ground. Some of the monster's remains slipped down the solid barrier leaving trails of blood.

He was a doctor, and he was used to seeing such carnage. But knowing who they once were…

Kaitaro swallowed and focused on sealing Sakura's wounds. Somehow, his attempts to keep her from losing a lot of blood were failing miserably. She was still alive, though barely. But she wasn't healing the way she should be. He feared it was the seal that connected Sakura's chakra circulatory system to Sasuke's that was keeping her body from responding properly to the mending techniques that he was using on her.

"You're a **fool **if you think you can defeat me," Yoake shouted, livid as his burned hand slowly morphed and shaped itself to look like it didn't get burned at all.

"Oh **come** **on!**" Daiki shouted. "What is this guy? **DIE ALREADY!**"

Sasuke kept his eyes on Yoake. He watched Yoake's wounds heal. He didn't expect that one to happen, but he didn't feel threatened.

He could feel his former strength and power course through his veins. It was like before he woke up from that cursed coma…when he and Naruto defeated Madara…when he fought that last battle with Naruto…

The only difference was that he wasn't facing Naruto. He was facing Yoake.

The wind behind him shifted. Before Sasuke could slash whatever attacked from behind him, Daiki saw a purple barrier burst around Sasuke, blocking the attack.

Daiki's jaw fell in awe as he noticed the skeleton-like structure enclosing Sasuke. "A rib cage?" he gasped. The barrier didn't look like the one Houren made. It was like purple flames – solid purple flames.

Sasuke noted the sharp claw that attacked him. It came from the remains of the monster and grunted, expecting more of it to come his way, since the remains were everywhere.

And sure enough more sharp bone fragments flew swiftly to attack him from various directions – all of them no match with the first stage of his Susanoo.

While the bones rained on Sasuke, the flesh on the ground flew to Yoake, morphing to create another monster – one that looked more like an oversized hound like Akio, only bald and without a tail, but with a large mouth that seemed to rip its cheeks when it growled.

The new monster hound pounced on Sasuke, mouth open enough to devour Sasuke.

Daiki froze as Sasuke's barrier grew an arm…an arm that slashed the monster in half with a sword. It was when the monster exploded into shreds of flesh and blood that he noticed how Sasuke's barrier had turned into a separate being, with its own growling head.

Purple burning flames had covered the rib cage protecting Sasuke…forming a chest with two arms ready to fight.

Daiki swallowed. Could Sakura also make a giant monster?

The torn flesh regrouped and morphed back into the oversized bald hound that it was, hunched and livid at its defeat. The bone shards that attacked Sasuke morphed into the hound, giving it an armor of spikes.

Sasuke fixed his eyes on Yoake, still on the roof. He was sure Yoake was controlling it.

"The artifact," he suddenly heard Houren's voice echo inside his head. "Destroy the artifact."

"**Where..?**" he mentally hissed back. He was busy thinking of a way to chop Yoake to pieces.

Houren looked up at Yoake. If the monster in that size could be shredded to pieces and could morph back like nothing happened to it, he was sure the monster was being kept alive by something other than Yoake's chakra.

The chakra Yoake planted in the villagers could turn them into puppets, sure, but to revive itself after being released from the body? Only the artifact could do it. And it had been hidden away…where..?

Houren scowled. "Your eyes," he mentally told Sasuke. "Use **your** eyes."

Sasuke frowned as the hound attacked again. His Susanoo took care of the monster, stabbing it, slashing away the spikes that flew its way, and slashing its torso open.

"He consumed the artifact," Houren's voice echoed in his mind – an image of Akio slitting the throat of a man in front of Yoake while inside a dark room, flashed in his memory. The blood poured down on a burning flame. It crackled and Sasuke's eyes caught something in the flames…something that burst and vanished into Yoake….

Sasuke looked grimly at Yoake. He would have to move.

The hound's limbs were torn away as well. Sasuke immediately jumped up to attack Yoake while the hound's limbs tried to re-attach themselves.

The Susanoo disappeared and Sasuke raised his chidori katana to cut slash Yoake in half.

Yoake cursed, barely moving away from the swift attack. The lightning sword left a deep wound stretching from his collar bone to his torso as he jumped away and watched the hound's flesh enclose Sasuke.

He smirked and flipped in the air to land firmly on the ground. His clothes swiftly turned red with blood.

"SASUKE-SAN!" Daiki yelled as the flesh morphed into a ball with Sasuke inside it. It seemed to shrink. "**IT'S GOING TO CRUSH HIM!**"

It burst into shreds again – Sasuke, suddenly nowhere in sight.

Yoake cursed and defensively looked around him as a rain of flesh and blood fell from above the square.

Then something else fell from the sky, glaring straight into Yoake's eyes.

Sasuke saw a chakra flame flicker in one of Yoake's shocked brown eyes before he slashed his sword.

The flesh morphed to form a barrier in front of Yoake, shielding him from the attack.

Sasuke bounced off the barrier and landed in front of Daiki.

He watched the hound rebuild itself.

Houren turned away and focused on sustaining the faint pulse Sakura had.

An image of the flames devouring the house in the woods flashed in Sasuke's mind as the hound growled proudly, flaunting another mouth that it had created in its torso.

It stood in front of Yoake, protecting him.

Sasuke felt the fleeting chakra behind him...and glared at the monster.

He had **enough** of Yoake's games.

Sasuke vanished again. The monster hunched defensively. Yoake kept his eyes up the sky.

Houren winced as he felt another huge amount of chakra get pulled from his arm. Sakura's chest and torso was turning purple. Her body was too weak to stop the internal hemorrhage.

Daiki watched black flames burst on the ground square, caging Yoake and the monster in a tight circle.

The already black, turbulent sky roared – sparks of lightning creeping through its clouds.

He gasped as a surge of lightning…a **dragon made of lightning** swooped down from the sky and attacked the monster. It created an explosion, another blinding blast that echoed with bone-chilling and deafening shrieks.

Yoake was too shocked at what happened to realize Sasuke had attacked him. One minute he was seeing his creation being burned by the lightning strike, another minute Sasuke's red eyes were in his vision. He felt something inside the back of his head throb…sting…then explode into flames that creeped through his eyes.

Yoake's screams echoed in the square with the hounds.' Sasuke watched the ameterasu burn Yoake's eyes…his face…his whole body.

With the faint flame gone in Yoake's left eye, the hound couldn't revive itself from being charred to ashes.

Houren winced, hearing the scream that Kaitaro and Daiki couldn't – the scream of the kin he failed to care for…

He remembered the Yoake who mourned for his separation from his mother. It was merely hours after Yoake was locked up in the room that would serve as his home for the next ten years.

Little Yoake looked up at him with tear-drenched cheeks. His eyes were red and swollen.

"It's not your fault," he remembered telling him.

"But why are they putting me in jail?" Yoake asked.

"I'm sorry," was Houren's only reply before kneeling down in front of the child and holding him close to his arms.

"Can you take care of my mother?" Yoake asked.

A tear slid down Houren's cheek as he kept his chakra flowing into Sakura's body. If he didn't let Yoake's mother die, he wouldn't have grown into the Yoake they knew now. If he stopped his grandson from caging Yoake and grooming him to be an heir, no innocent lives would perish.

If he didn't break the rules of his world and stayed in there instead, none of this would have happened.

* * *

><p>"Yoake, my child," Yoake heard Houren's voice echo inside his head. Suddenly the agony of being burned at the stake felt…so far away from him… He opened his eyes and found himself in a black void.<p>

Images began to flood his consciousness – images he remembered from the days he had lived his life.

So it was true that when you die, you see your whole life flash in front of you.

He smirked as the emotions flooded his chest…anger…hatred…loathing…

An image of his mother flashed in his mind…Her warm smile…her tight embrace…the food she cooked for him…the light kisses she placed on his cheeks and forehead…

…Love…happiness…contentment…

Yoake felt his heart swell. He missed those emotions. He missed those memories…

Another image flashed in his mind – an image of the medic who arrived in the village and made it her job to save the people he tried to kill.

…Admiration…

Yoake smirked and looked down at his hands. He remembered how he inflicted her with the new strain. She knew what he was going to do. But she didn't run away from him.

"Why do you interfere so much?" he asked her that gloomy evening in the woods.

"Why do you hate so much?" Sakura asked.

"You know **nothing** of what **I** have been through," he hissed.

"Perhaps I wouldn't understand, yes," Sakura said calmly. "You're not the only one I've heard that line from, you know. But that doesn't mean that I should just let you do what you're doing. You're killing children who might not grow to hate you – people who might not even care about what the others feel about you…people who might actually care about your well being."

"Do **you **care about my well being?" he playfully asked.

"I do," Sakura answered.

He chuckled, shaking his head.

"You remind me of a man I care about," Sakura said plainly.

He watched her for a moment. "You care about?" he asked, walking to stand in front of her. "Do you care about **me**?" he softly asked.

"I do," Sakura answered.

"Prove it," he said. "Hold me."

Sakura wrapped her arms around him, resting her head against his chest.

"You will die," he whispered.

She just smiled. "I forgive you." Then she closed her eyes and allowed his chakra to seep into her body. Her warm hold reminded him of his mother – loving and secure.

Yoake winced. She wasn't one of the people who ridiculed him…who judged him and his mother…who wanted his mother's death…

But he sentenced her to a short and painful life.

He remembered the faces of the children who died by the illness he inflicted them with. They were playing tag when he placed the chakra into their systems. They were happy to play with him, unlike those village kids he grew up with.

"Nii-san!" they called him cheerfully. "Let's play tag again tomorrow!"

The pregnant women…he asked to feel their infants' kicks against their stomachs.

"Oh! He kicked! My baby likes you!"

"They know nothing," his mother's voice echoed in the void. "Hate them not for they know nothing. Don't live in the past, Yoake, only in the present. They will realize they are wrong and that realization only happens in the present, never in the past."

Tears streamed down his cheeks.

"What have I done?" he whispered, his shoulders trembling.

"It's not your fault," he heard Houren's voice echo from behind him.

He turned around and saw his great grand father looking warmly at him. It made his knees weak.

"It was **all** my fault!" Yoake said falling on his knees and sobbing. "I'm…a **monster**!"

He felt warm arms hold him…just like they did when he was younger.

"A lot of things happened, child," Houren said, cradling his grandson's head in the crook of his neck. "They happened before you were born. They caused you pain and suffering. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't stop them from happening."

Yoake wrapped his arms around Houren and shook his head. He had hurt Houren for quite a long time, enslaving him…taunting him…offending him, when Houren acted as the father he needed in his life.

"I was a fool," Yoake said. "I let my hatred get the better of me. I should not have hated them."

Houren smiled. "Hatred can break people, but it can also **make** people. It is only a matter of how it is used. Now forgive yourself. Sakura already had."

Yoake smiled and looked up at him. "Have you also…forgiven me?"

Houren chuckled. "Yes. Yes I have." Though for him, there was nothing to forgive. He didn't blame him.

Yoake smiled and turned into the sweet boy Houren first met. He kissed Houren's cheeks and buried his head into Houren's chest.

Houren cradled him tightly…until little Yoake vanished in his arms.

* * *

><p>Sasuke watched a blue flame burst through the black flames that were devouring Yoake's body. He put out his ameterasu and watched the blue flame consume the corpse. When the flame subsided, the body was gone.<p>

He turned around and saw the ashes of the hound on the ground – the wind slowly blowing its dusts away. He also put out the flames in the square.

Sasuke rushed to kneel beside Sakura.

"Eh?" Daiki said, shocked that Sasuke passed through the barrier. "It's gone?" he asked as the scent of burned flesh touched his nose.

"How is she?" Sasuke asked with his black eyes fixed at Sakura's pale face.

"Not good," Kaitaro answered. "Houren?"

Houren only stood up. "Go home."

Sasuke looked up at him.

"Take the scroll to Konoha," Houren said.

"What about Sakura?"

Houren looked at Daiki. "Gather all the wood you can get," he said.

Sasuke stood up and pulled Houren by the collar of his kimono. "**WHAT ABOUT SAKURA!**" he shouted, glaring coldly at him.

"You **know** the answer to your question," Houren said calmly.

Sasuke froze. Daiki and Kaitaro stiffened.

Sasuke's eyes fell on Sakura's still form. He could see the blood and the burns on her flesh…smell the stench of death on her skin…

"Her body isn't responding," Houren said. "We've done all that we could."

Sasuke swallowed, a lump forming in his throat...pain surging through his chest. "Can't I turn it around?" he asked almost silently.

"It doesn't work that way," Houren said. "What has been taken cannot be given back. Either you leave now and forget, or you relieve her now and take her with you."

"_You don't remember? You walked into the gates of Konoha, the scroll in your sleeve, and the urn in your arms."_

"_What urn?!"_

_Tsunade sighed. "The urn where you kept Sakura's ashes in," she said. _

He could see himself walking in the gates of Konoha with an urn – the scroll tucked in his sleeve. He could see himself looking down at Sakura's grave with everyone in the village mourning under the rain. He could see himself writing a report saying how she died peacefully in a deathbed, when in truth he stopped her heart from beating using his katana.

"_Last night. You said, 'wake me-yup then, doe-beh',"_ he mockingly said, acting like a drunk.

"_I don't sound like that."_

"_Sure you do!_ _You do when you smell like vomit and liquor. Take a bath before you get out of your apartment, will you? I'm starting to think kicking those Anbu guards of yours away isn't a good idea."_

He could see himself drinking sake all night to keep the dreams away…the dreams he had grown up with…the dreams where he could see Sakura's smiling face…the dreams where he saw how he killed her…

"_Please calm down, Uchiha-san," the doctor said, anxiety reflecting in his ashen eyes. "I'm only here to help you. I won't ask about your dreams. Just…tell me your last memory of Haruno-san."_

He was such a mess that the Hokage got him into therapy…a therapy where he was forced to accept the fact that she was dead, and that there was nothing else that he could do about it…

Kaitaro watched Sasuke's eyes lose its luster..its life. He knew the feeling of seeing your love one dying, and knowing that the only way to save her was help her die. He looked down at Sakura. After everything they planned to stop everything, this was still the ending – Sakura dying.

Perhaps it was her time anyway. She had been through so much pain and suffering…she deserved peace.

Sasuke clenched his trembling fists. "**No.**"

Houren, Kaitaro and Daiki looked puzzled at him.

Sasuke knelt down, took a layer of his kimono off, and covered her body with it. He then took her into his arms. "Which way from here is the fastest way to Konoha?" he asked Houren – determination flooding his dark eyes.

Houren watched him for a moment before pointing a finger at the direction of the woods.

"Houren!" Kaitaro said, frowning at his grandfather. "Sasuke-san, she won't make it down the mountain!"

Sasuke was on his feet, Sakura's head buried on the crook of his neck. He turned to the direction Houren pointed to and vanished.

Houren, Kaitaro and Daiki stood silent for a moment.

"Do you think…they'll make it?" Daiki asked.

Houren looked down at the blood on the snow beside his feet. It looked like it was the site of a slaughter.

"Houren..?" Kaitaro asked.

"Search for survivors," Houren said. "Burn the dead."

Kaitaro sighed.

That was Houren's way of saying there was nothing else they could do to help Sakura and Sasuke.

* * *

><p>Sasuke swiftly leaped from one tree branch to another – his eyes fixed at the path that supposedly led straight to Konoha.<p>

He was faster than the Anbu ninjas. He could get Sakura out of the place faster than they could.

Sasuke swallowed. He could barely feel Sakura's pulse…her chest barely moved against his own…and her skin was cold…too cold for the living…

No. Sakura wasn't going to die. She would live. They would live.

He understood what she wanted him to do. He undertstood what Naruto had been trying to tell him for the longest time. He understood Kakashi's point.

Sakura kept his hatred away from him to show him the other things he still had – family, love, life – things he had ignored for years. His hatred – the hatred that kept him alive for years – was a part of him.

And Sakura knew that. She just wanted it away for a while. She knew that when she died, his hatred would return to him. But with a new outlook, with the realization that there was more to life than just his past, she figured he would still chose to live.

And he would. He would live, knowing that his hatred would always be there to remind him of the wrongs that should not be repeated, to remind him of the things that should be corrected, and to show him the things that people he loved should not experience.

It would be there to strengthen him when he fought for the things he still had, when he defended the people who cared for him, when he kept his love ones safe…Love ones who won't just be people with the Uchiha name.

Sasuke tightened his hold on Sakura.

She wouldn't leave him. She **shouldn't** leave him, not when he had understood everything. She had her wrongs, but he had his own too.

They would reach Konoha together. Tsunade will find a cure for her. Team 7, the small family he foolishly tried to leave behind, would be complete.

Sakura would live.

Something exploded behind Sasuke, followed by several blasts ahead of them. It threw him off his path. He gasped as more blasts echoed around him. He found himself falling down on the ground – his back cushioning his fall in his attempt to keep Sakura from crashing down on the ground.

He opened his eyes, wincing at the throbbing in his back muscles, and found Sakura on the snow. He frantically crouched over her, checking her pulse.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he heard someone say in front of him.

He looked up and saw three Oto ninjas staring arrogantly at him.

"Uchiha's trying to save a damsel in distress?" Ijira crooned. "You **have** grown weak."

Sasuke glared at them, cursing in his thoughts.

He would have to fight them, and without using any genjutsu or ninjutsu. Without Houren there to replace the chakra his body was taking from Sakura, she would die.


	53. Chapter 53

_I'm terribly sorry again for the extremely late update. I'm still very busy this week :(_

_I'll respond to your reviews and questions once I have the time to read them all. Thank you all so much for your patience!  
><em>

_Here is this week's chapter. Do tell me what you think about it!  
><em>

* * *

><p>Sakura watched the smoke swallow everything around her – Sasuke's pained cries ringing in her ears.<p>

Fear and anxiety coursed through her veins. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She had to tightly cover her mouth with her trembling hands to keep herself from wailing.

She couldn't remember how everything changed, how she got there, how it began. All she knew was that people were trying to kill Sasuke.

Something exploded and covered everything around her with smoke. By the sound of Sasuke's voice, she could tell that the blast wounded him.

And sure enough, when the smoke cleared, she saw him limply standing in front of her. Blood streamed down his forehead. His arm looked broken with deep gashes and burns. He was breathing heavily – trying not to wince at the pain.

A thick cloud of kunais and shurikens flew toward Sasuke. He barely escaped their attack.

Konoha. Konoha ninjas were trying to kill him. Each blade thirsted for his blood, slashing his clothes and ripping his skin. Sasuke's cheeks were bleeding when he fell down on the ground. A number of kunais had buried themselves into his limbs.

She heard Sasuke wince and cry out in pain. He was coughing out blood on the ground.

Sakura felt something in her chest burn. She didn't want to see him in pain. She wanted to protect him. She wanted to save him. She couldn't just stand there and watch.

But each time she tried to take a step forward, her body remained stiff. She just couldn't move.

Sakura saw silhouettes emerge from the darkness around them – ninjas! They were heading toward Sasuke.

"N-NO!" she shouted, wanting to run to Sasuke. Her knees were shaking. She was trying to focus her chakra on her limbs to help her move.

Sasuke forced himself to stand, just in time to face the ninjas that had attacked him. He was able to fight of most of the first ninjas who tried to hit him. But after kicking the seventh attacker away, his body had lost its ability to fight back.

"**NO!**" Sakura yelled, seeing the ninjas slash Sasuke's torso…rip his back with a katana…punch his face and break his knee…

Then another silhouette charged from nowhere – a blinding surge of lighting in its trail. Deafening shrieks of birds echoed in the darkness.

…Chidori. Kakashi-sensei?

Another group of ninjas came jumping into the scene. They all looked the same, each of them with a ball of whirling chakra.

…Naruto?

"**STOP! NO! NARUTO! KAKASHI-SENSEI!**" Sakura cried, watching them hurl the chidori and rasengans at Sasuke. "**PLEASE STOP! SASUKE-KUN!**"

A loud blast swept the ground, hurling Sakura to her knees. The scent of burning flesh filled her nose. It brought more fear into her system. She didn't care if she was sobbing like a four-year old. She didn't want to lose them!

The smoke cleared once more, leaving Sasuke half kneeling on the ground. He looked so battered, bloody, and weak that Sakura feared he would die at any moment.

Why didn't he defend himself?! Why didn't he try to fight?! He could use his sharingan! He could use his ameterasu! He could use his susanoo!

…Or could he..?

She remembered what she had done to him…what she had taken away from him…what she had put Sasuke through and gasped.

Sasuke was dying because of her.

She saw him glance at her – dark eyes pleading for help.

Sakura fell on her knees. "Sasuke-kun…"

* * *

><p>Sasuke swiftly slashed Kasaru's torso, spilling blood in the air.<p>

He left Sakura in a hollow of a huge tree root, covered by an invisible web of strings that triggered traps he hastily made while they tried to run away from the Oto ninjas.

There was no way for them to escape without killing the ninjas. Luckily, they weren't as fast as him.

Kasaru cursed and fell on the ground on his knees.

Sasuke landed on a tree branch breathing heavily – sweat and blood sliding down the side of his face. The Oto ninjas had vanished. He looked behind him to check on Sakura. She was still unconscious near the tree.

And her skin already resembled the snow.

Sasuke cursed. They were running out of time.

The wind beside his left ear suddenly exploded, hurling him off the branch and down the ground.

Sasuke winced at the burning pain in his left ear. Everything around him became a blur – a high-pitched ringing sound filling his ears.

He looked up, feeling dizzy and weak. He tried to stand but the blast seemed to have impaled his left ear, affecting his balance. He fell back on the ground, cursing.

Another blast erupted from his right, throwing him on a tree – his back hitting the trunk hard before he toppled to the ground.

His body burned with pain. He didn't want to move anymore. But he had to stand up! He had to fight back.

Sasuke forced his eyes to open – his limbs struggling to help him stand. It was then that he realized how he had lost his katana.

It was thrown several feet away from him.

He felt the air beside him shift. He gasped and quickly looked at where Sakura was. He saw a string in the web snap…followed by an Oto ninja crashing down on the snow spraying blood in the air.

One kunai down.

Zumi cursed and sat up, glaring at the kunai plunged deep on her side. She didn't expect to see a trap there since it seemed impossible for Sasuke to make one in such a short time.

But then why would he leave Sakura behind in the open like that? She should have seen it coming!

Sasuke shakily sighed in relief. Hopefully his traps would hold.

He felt someone grip his hair, pulling him up from the ground. A cold blade touched his neck.

"And here I thought he'd be a challenge," Kasaru said, smirking and holding Sasuke by his hair while pushing the blade of his kunai deeper into his neck.

Ijira watched Sasuke glare at Kasaru.

It wasn't a fair fight. But they had no choice. This was their only hope of defeating him.

Ijira looked away. He didn't like it though. It was too easy. He didn't even get the chance to-

"**AGGGHHHH!**"

Kasaru and Ijira snapped their heads to look at Zumi. She was on the ground – her torso open. Beside her was a shuriken.

"Zumi!" Kasaru cried, loosening his grip on Sasuke.

Ijira turned to Kasaru, worried that Sasuke would see the distraction as an opportunity to flee.

And he did. He saw Sasuke stab Kasaru's neck with a kunai.

Kasaru released Sasuke. Sasuke saw Ijira grip Kasaru's shoulder.

He still couldn't hear anything…just that irritating ringing sound that seemed to come with intense silence.

Sasuke forced his legs to help him run to his katana. They still seemed too busy to stop him. He held the katana in his hand and found himself being hurled up in the air.

Ijira whistled – making massive ripples exploding in the air. The ripples hit Sasuke's back, throwing him toward the nearest tree.

Sasuke fell back down on the ground coughing blood. His katana was beyond his reach again. He could see only one Oto ninja standing.

One was good. It was fair…or was it?

"Tie him up!" Kasaru ordered, covering the bleeding wound on his neck.

Ijira glared at him. He was tired of being ordered around. He looked at Zumi and found her struggling to stand – a number of blood-stained shurikens and kunais scattered around her. She had severed all the wires protecting Sakura. But she stupidly fell on each trap.

"TIE HIM UP! We'll kill the girl in front him!" Kasaru angrily ordered.

Ijira smirked. "Sure," he said, quickly making hand seals. "Tie him up yourself."

Kasaru found himself standing up and making hand seals. "What the-"

"Unlike you, I do some research," Ijira said smiling as Zumi screamed. She was standing up and pulling out a kunai from her holster.

"What's happening?" Zumi shrieked, confused at what she was doing.

"You're doing things for me," Ijira answered. "…For a change."

Sasuke forced himself to stand. Zumi was walking closer to Sakura – a kunai poised to stab a victim. He gasped and struggled to steady himself. He saw Kasaru suddenly up in the air above him. He then felt strings wind around his throat, his arms, his legs…

Sasuke fell down on the snow again, wincing in pain.

Kasaru landed behind him – pale and bleeding furiously. "Curse…y-you…" he breathed, clearly slowly losing his life with every second he stood.

"Sure," Ijira said throwing a kunai at Kasaru – thrusting it straight to his chest.

Kasaru gasped as the blade lodged itself deep into his heart.

Sasuke watched blood stream down Kasaru's open mouth. He anxiously looked out at where Sakura was and saw Zumi hovering over Sakura – her kunai over Sakura's neck.

"Now cooperate, Uchiha," Ijira said holding a string that seemed to be connected to the kunai that killed Kasaru. "Or your girl dies, right Zumi?"

Zumi was spilling her own blood on Sakura's forehead. She was choking…and the constant loss of blood was leading her to her death.

"You're…killing…your team," Sasuke said, eyeing Ijira.

"I wouldn't need them," Ijira said shrugging his shoulders. "Once I get your chakra and everything else that makes you the all-powerful ninja, I'll be able to destroy Konoha on my own."

Sasuke felt something suck his insides. Excruciating pain surged through his chest.

Ijira listened to Sasuke's pained screams. He could feel the chakra course through the string in his hand…into his veins…

He smirked. He would kill Sasuke, and in the process gain enough power to overthrow any ninja village. He knew killing that opportunist in the village down the mountain would do him good.

The old man promised to hire a Konoha ninja as his protector, which was just idiotic since that wasn't how transactions with ninjas go. But he obliged, without Kasaru and Zumi's knowledge. He agreed to see the 'Konoha ninja' and saw a pompous drunkard bragging about how he could absorb energies. When Ijira threatened to kill him, he confessed to giving Houren what he called as an 'artifact' – a small stone figurine resembling a flame. He told Ijira what he learned when he held the stone.

And that piece of information was what Ijira was going to do, with Kasaru and Zumi as his pawns.

"NO!" Sasuke cried, feeling how his body seemed to replace the amount of chakra Ijira was taking out of him. He could feel a constant surge of chakra in his chest – chakra that he knew came from Sakura. "STOP IT!"

Ijira burst into laughter. "Uchiha Sasuke can't take the pain anymore?" he crooned. "Aww…"

Sasuke glared at Ijira – his eyes turning red.

"Sharingan?" Ijira asked smiling at him. "You think that will scare me? Without your precious chakra, you won't be able to use any of your-"

A powerful surge of electricity ran through the string, stunning Ijira. The chakra continued to fill his system. The power he was feeling slowly turned into pain – a burning sensation that coursed through his veins.

Ijira began to choke as the invisible flames reached his chest.

He looked up to see Sasuke still glaring coldly at him.

Fear flooded his thoughts. Sasuke was controlling his chakra to kill him!

"NO!" Ijira shouted, frantic with fear. He threw the string away, rushed to Sasuke, grabbed the katana on the snow and slashed Sasuke in half.

Blood filled the snow.

Ijira's crazed face was smiling at the corpse in front of him.

He had killed Uchiha Sasuke. He had killed the famous Uchiha Sasuke on his own!

Ijira began to chuckle…to laugh…hysterically at his triumph. He knew he could do it. He **alone** could do it!

He suddenly coughed out, feeling something painful rise up to his throat. He continued to cough out loud until he spit on the ground.

He stared at the stain he made on the snow. It was red…a dark shade of red. It was then that he noticed something red in his abdomen…an open wound…

Ijira gasped and looked up. He gasped as the corpse he expected to see there vanished…

Sasuke watched Ijira's shocked face falter…realization sinking into his senses. Sasuke's red eyes turned back into black. And with those eyes, he watched Ijira fall down.

Kasaru also fell down behind him – dead.

Sasuke gasped, his trembling knees succumbing to the exhaustion. It took all his energy to keep himself awake.

Sakura…Sakura was still…there… with that Oto ninja…

Sasuke crawled on the blood-red snow, unable to stand and walk. His eyes wandered to where he last saw Sakura.

The Oto ninja lay unconscious over her, most likely dead.

"S-Sakura!" Sasuke breathlessly cried as he crawled faster to reach her. The snow had numbed his body when he reached her.

He pushed the Oto ninja's corpse off of Sakura and quickly hovered over her, checking her pulse.

She was closer to a shade of purple.

Sasuke gasped – his vision blurring. "Sakura," he whispered, wiping the blood stains on her face. "S-Sakura, stay with me!"

He quickly checked her pulse. Her chest barely moved. Her heart beat…

"N-no," Sasuke breathed, tears sliding down Sakura's forehead. "No, please…Sakura," he said shaking his head and pulling her close to his chest.

Sakura kept her green eyes on Sasuke's pleading dark ones.

He was dying. She was killing him.

"Please, Sakura," Sasuke whispered, ignoring the tears streaming down his cheeks. He held her head in his arm and tried to lift her up from the ground.

They had to go. They had to reach Konoha.

He forced himself to stand with Sakura's weight on his arms…but he ended up stumbling down on the snow.

His body was just too weak.

"Sakura, stay with me!" Sasuke said, shakily sitting up and cradling Sakura in his arms. "**Please!**"

* * *

><p>Sakura reached out her hand to touch him…to heal him…<p>

But that wasn't going to be enough to save him.

Sakura sighed, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Sasuke-kun…I love you. I still do."

* * *

><p>Sasuke held Sakura close, feeling every weak beat of her heart. He looked around him. It was dark and no one else was in sight.<p>

Sasuke shook his head and kissed her forehead. There had to be a way to save her. There just **had** to be a way. He won't kill her. HE WON'T KILL HER!

* * *

><p>Sakura saw Sasuke smirk. She watched him limply walk toward her.<p>

"Sakura…"

* * *

><p>Sasuke held Sakura's cold cheek in his trembling hand.<p>

Her pulse was fading.

"Sakura," he began. He placed a soft kiss her nose…forehead…and cheeks. "Sakura, can you hear me? I'm sorry. I'm sorry I did all those things. You're right. I can live in the present. I still have a family. I still have Dobe, Kakashi-sensei…and you. Sakura, I get it now. I'm sorry. **Stay** with me, please. We'll go back to Konoha together."

* * *

><p>"Thank you," Sakura heard Sasuke say – a smile on his face.<p>

She knew that was all he would say but hearing it…still broke her heart.

* * *

><p>Sasuke closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers. "Sakura…" he said opening his eyes and leaning away to look at her face. "I love you."<p>

* * *

><p>"I can never love you," Sakura heard Sasuke say – honesty clear in his eyes.<p>

Sakura smiled, closed her eyes and nodded. There really was no way that he could love her back…not when she was **this** weak…Not when he brought him nothing but pain.

Sasuke held out a kunai to her.

Sakura opened her eyes and held it in her hand.

* * *

><p>"I love you, Sakura," Sasuke said sobbing and watching his tears slide down her cheeks. "<strong>I love you<strong>."

* * *

><p>Sakura looked at Sasuke again. "You'll be happy now."<p>

Sasuke nodded.

She plunged the kunai into her chest – her vision blurring. It didn't take long until the darkness came. For a moment she thought she was locked in a warm embrace...with something soft and warm pressed against her lips.

* * *

><p>Tsunade looked out the window of her office, knowing that beyond the peaceful nightscape of Konoha was an army, waiting for an enemy to strike. She left the lights off, thinking it would obscure the view.<p>

It was still a few days before the exact time when Sasuke would arrive. But they already prepared the Anbu ninjas, and the strongest clans for the worst.

Tsunade couldn't help but wonder about seeing Sakura again. Would she still see her? Would she walk into the gates of Konoha with Sasuke?

Would they need all the preparations they had?

"That's all you can do?" Tsunade heard someone say from behind her.

She froze, suddenly clueless on what she should do.

The Anbu ninjas were positioned in every corner and crevice that could let Sasuke into the village. There wasn't a trace of commotion in sight.

Yet there he was, inside her office…unscathed.

"Uchiha," Tsunade said, recognizing his presence.

"I thought you were better than this," Sasuke said. "You're the Hokage after all. I guess I was wrong."

Tsunade smirked. She would be the one to kill him after all. And here, she thought those volunteers would do the dirty work.

She calmly turned around to face him.

He was across the room – beside the door. He was leaning casually against the wall. His mangekyou watched her like a predator to its prey.

"You're early," she said.

"You **lied** to me," Sasuke hissed.

Tsunade sighed. "We were trying to protect you."

"You should have just killed me."

"Yeah, well it wasn't that easy, apparently! Not when your remaining family was willing to die with you!"

Sasuke just watched her.

Tsunade shook her head and looked away. "We needed them alive," she said. "We needed **you** alive…for a new Konoha…For the Konoha that wouldn't tolerate what happened before."

"Is that why you had those ninjas out there, ready to kill me?"

Tsunade sighed. "It wasn't like we were expecting you to be that smart," she said. "You were the boy who heeded to his emotions, not to his logic. We didn't expect you to understand that much."

"Hn."

Tsunade waited for him to attack – to do something to end what he began to do years ago – to destroy Konoha. But he only stood there and watched her.

She cleared her throat. "So…Is this the part where we kill each other?"

"Maybe," he said. "If that's what you want."

Tsunade raised a brow at him.

Sasuke leaned away from the wall and threw something to the Hokage.

Tsunade defensively caught it.

It wasn't a kunai though. Nor was it a bomb of sorts.

It was a notebook…that smelled like dried blood.

Sasuke turned to the door.

"W-what is this?" Tsunade asked, clearly confused at what Sasuke did.

"It's not a scroll," Sasuke said. "It's a notebook – a journal. But you already know that, right?" He opened the door.

"UCHIHA!" Tsunade angrily called.

Sasuke stood on his place, waiting for the Hokage to speak.

"Did…Did she suffer?" she asked, almost silently.

Sasuke stood silent there for a moment. "Read it," he said before he walked out of the office, locking the door behind him.

Tsunade stood frozen in her office.

Uchiha left without killing her. He got inside Konoha without hurting a soul. He went there without Sakura.

Well, she definitely didn't expect all of those to happen that night.

She looked at the journal and saw patches of dried blood on it.

Should she tell the ninjas to go home and sleep the night off?

* * *

><p>Naruto sat on the Sasuke's bed. He still didn't think he would want to destroy Konoha, or kill anyone in the village. So he waited every night in Sasuke's apartment, knowing it was the first place he would go once he got back from his mission.<p>

"Don't you have your own apartment, dobe?" he heard Sasuke ask, suddenly by the door of the bedroom.

"TEME!" Naruto excitedly said, jumping off the bed.

Sasuke just smirked at him.

"I…I **knew** you wouldn't try to kill anyone! I **knew **you'd go straight here!" Naruto ecstatically said. "Were you with Sakura? Is she okay? Where did you go to anyway? That was one long mission you got there!"

Sasuke ignored him and walked to his wardrobe. He put his things down on the floor and searched his closet for clean clothes.

"Teme! I asked you a question! Answer me!"

"You asked me four questions," Sasuke said. "Let me sleep."

Naruto sighed. "Fine! But I'm going to ask you about them tomorrow!"

Sasuke sighed. "Get out of my apartment, dobe."

Naruto snickered and walked to the window. "Sure thing, teme!"

Before Naruto could jump off the window, he felt something tug on his collar. He turned and saw Sasuke looking at him. "Whatever you hear about Sakura," he said. "Don't believe it."

Naruto raised his brows. "What do you mean?"

"Just don't believe it," he said. "…Unless you heard it from me."

Naruto stared confused at Sasuke. What happened to Sakura?

Before he could ask him, Sasuke had pushed him off of the window. Naruto fell head-first on the ground – cursing and wincing in pain.

"DAMN YOU, TEME! YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT!" Naruto huffed and forced himself to stand. He scratched his aching head, muttering curses. He looked up and saw that Sasuke had locked the window and he seemed to have started changing his clothes.

Naruto sighed. Perhaps, it really wasn't the time to ask him those questions. Sasuke needed to rest first.

He nodded and began to walk to his apartment, glad that he proved everyone wrong about Sasuke.


	54. Chapter 54

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing 'Scroll' _^ v ^

_ON TIME! WHOOOO!_

_Since I still have some spare time, I'll try responding to some of your reviews and questions._

_LOL _^ v ^_ Glad Houren's line in Chapter 51 made you smile, _**Timber Wolf of Purity**.

_So many questions about Sakura - is she alive? Where is she? Where did she go? And unfortunately, I can't answer that, at least not now. _* v *

_"did they die?" -I can definitely tell you one of them is alive. _^ v *

"_was everything just a horrid dream?" "Did Sakura and Sasuke start to hallucinate?" "Did Tsunade send an ANBU team so they could help them escape?" "Is it all just a genjutsu or what..?"-This chapter should clarify it, I think. If it doesn't, I'll put another AN at the end. _^ v ^

_Anyway, here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you think about it. _

* * *

><p>Jirotaiku leaped to the nearest tree branch, hoping Houren had taken Sakura to the safe house they talked about the night before.<p>

He could still remember how Gaita ordered him to get Sakura to a safe place…How he attacked Yoake knowing he could only stall his advances…how Izuki and Mito charged to help Gaita instead of running away with him and Sakura…

…How, in one huge explosion created by Gaita, Izuki and Mito, Yoake's ice soldiers crumbled to the ground…Jirotaiku's team dying with them.

Jirotaiku felt pain surge through his chest – hatred, guilt…regret. He should be dead, not them. He should have been the one who blocked Yoake's attacks. He was the one assigned to be Sakura's bodyguard. He was the one who was supposed to die saving her.

But they just had to be too damn noble!

He could still hear Sakura's screams when he dragged her away from the scene…how she begged to stay and fight with them…how she feared for their lives…

Sakura.

She was the reason why Akio was pursuing him. She was the reason why he was in this hell of a mess. She was the reason why he was, at that moment, enduring a stab wound on his side.

But she was also the reason why, for the first time in his life, his life felt like it was worth living.

A deafening growl echoed from behind him, and before he could leap to the nearest branch a long spear pierced through his torso, hurling him back down on the ground.

He tumbled on several tree roots – the iciness of the snow barely helping him endure his wounds. He lay wincing on the ground, coughing out blood. It was then that he realized what weapon hit him – a pointed arm-length bone he knew was from Akio.

He cursed, knowing by the sound of the wind that Akio was near.

"I haven't even said 'I love you' to Sakura yet," he muttered, his voice sounding feminine.

"Got you, Sakura-chan," Akio teased, pouncing over Jirotaiku.

Jiro winced at the pain in his wounds. He looked through the pink tresses over his face, seeing a wounded image of Sakura in half-dog Akio's dark eyes.

He smirked. At least Sakura was safe.

The next thing he knew, he was in a dark place – chains dangling him from the ceiling.

"**IDIOT!**" he heard Yoake's voice echo from the hall beyond the room. "That's not Sakura! That's Jirotaiku pretending to be her!"

"W-what..?"

Jirotaiku smirked. His disguise must have faltered after he lost consciousness.

"Never mind," Yoake hissed. "He'll tell us where she is."

"Like hell I would," Jirotaiku smugly whispered.

And for the next times he would be conscious inside that cell he would be submerged in icy water several times until he choked, he would be whipped with steel chains until he felt like committing suicide, he would be electrocuted and battered until his torturer allowed him to sleep…

And the last memory he would have in that room would be the one with a group of ANBU ninjas struggling to free him from his chains. Everything would be blurry.

Then he saw Sakura's anxious face hovering over him. "They got you pretty bad," her voice echoed in his ears. "I'll suppress the poison until I find a cure. You'll have to sleep for a while."

"Stay…wi-with me…"

Jirotaiku watched her nod – a sweet smile on her face. "Stay alive for me."

Then everything was in chaos again. Screams echoed around him. "W-what's…h-happen-"

"She won't make it!"

Then he saw a blurry pale image of Sakura unconscious on the snow. He could barely see the details of the things around him, but he could visibly see the blood streaming down from her nose and purple lips.

"Go then!" he heard Kaitaro shout. "Save Jirotaiku and take this to the Hokage!"

"S-Saku-ra…"

"No time, Jiro," hissed an ANBU ninja against his ear. "Let's go!" He felt himself being lifted from the ground.

"No…NO! Sakura! **SAKURA!**"

After that, everything went black. The next image he saw was a blinding light…the commotion-filled hallway of what seemed like a hospital.

Then Tsunade's face…

"Don't send him," he forced himself to say, wanting nothing but to tell someone about what he wanted to do. "Don't send him," he said, not knowing what his limbs were doing. He wanted to hold the Hogake's arm and beg, but he could barely feel anything other than pain.

"Calm yourself, Jirotaiku," he heard the Hokage's voice echo in his ears.

"Don't send him...Please…"

"Ho-k-kag-ge-sama," he said, suddenly feeling numbness course through his veins. If his body hadn't been too cooperative with him then, it was completely stubborn at that very moment. "I b-beg y-you. I'll g-go b-back to S-Sakura. I'll s-save h-her-r…"

He didn't hear any response from the Hokage. Either he just didn't hear her reply, or she really didn't say anything. After all, she sent Sasuke to get the scroll from Sakura…to kill her.

Everything went back to black. He was back in the void – the land between life and death.

A blinding light sparked in front of him. He sighed and stretched his hand out to reach it.

The light swallowed the void.

"Welcome back," he heard the Hokage's voice fill his ears.

He grunted.

So the cure reached him on time.

* * *

><p>Sasuke stood on the porch, looking out at the gloomy forest as flakes of snow fell down from the heavens.<p>

He was in the house in Nanashi village – the house he shared with Sakura.

It felt so peaceful there, for once. He realized that those times he spent in the house had been full of anxiety, confusion, pain, and fear.

That night though, it felt…quiet.

He looked to his left and saw Sakura sitting on the edge of the porch – her feet dangling at the edge and swaying on the snow. He green eyes watched the snow fall down the ground, melting at her smooth legs.

Sasuke couldn't help but sigh in relief.

If only it lasted…

"..eme!" a voice echoed from the peaceful house.

Sasuke opened his eyes and squinted at the blinding light that hit his face.

"Rise and shine, Teme!" Naruto's voice filled his ears.

Sasuke grunted and tried to cover his face with his pillow.

"You have things to tell me! And Baa-chan said you haven't filed a report on your mission yet," Naruto said, arms crossed over his chest. He sat on the edge of Sasuke's bed, watching his friend ignore the morning.

"Why are you here?" Sasuke hissed.

"You promised to tell me everything today, so I'm here," Naruto said grinning widely at him. "So, where did you go? What was your mission? I went to Sakura-chan's apartment but she wasn't there. I was thinking she went to the hospital since Jirotaiku's woken up from his coma last night. So I figured I should just check on you again today."

Sasuke opened his eyes – the pillow shielding his face from the blinding morning light. He took a deep breath before he sat up and scratched his eyes.

"What was Sakura-chan's mission? Did she really have just one mission for the last two years? How did your mission go?"

Sasuke sighed and looked at Naruto. "Get out."

"No way! You promised you'd tell me-"

"Get out," he said glaring at him.

"**NO.** You said-"

"I said 'get out of my apartment,' Dobe. I didn't say anything about answering anything."

Naruto glared at him.

Sasuke got off his bed and walked to the bathroom.

"They said she's dead," Naruto said, staring at the picture of Team 7 on Sasuke's bedside table.

Sasuke froze for a moment, staring at his reflection on the mirror above his lavatory.

Naruto turned to face him – his blue eyes serious and glowing with determination. "You said I shouldn't listen to what they say about her," he began. "That I should only believe what **you** say about her. Tell me now, Sasuke. Is she alive?"

Sasuke looked at his reflection for a moment. His dark eyes wandered over the minute scars on his face – scars from the wounds he got from his battles in Nanashi village.

It still didn't feel real. He still felt like his dream of standing in the porch with Sakura sitting beside him was real – not him in Konoha, listening to Naruto's interrogations.

"Hn," he said preparing to brush his teeth.

"**DAMN IT, SASUKE! TALK TO ME!**"

"Trust me."

Naruto froze – eyes wide with surprise and confusion. "W-what..?"

Sasuke turned to look at him. "Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do! What kind of question is that?"

"Then shut up and trust me," he said turning to look at the mirror. "And get out."

Naruto snorted. Sasuke wasn't going to tell him anything. He wanted to argue more. But something in Sasuke's face told him Sasuke would still keep his mouth shut.

He remembered what Kakashi told him that morning, when he met him on his way to Sasuke's apartment.

"Don't ask him about Sakura," he said. "Now is not the time for that. Let him tell you about her on his own. He won't keep the truth about her away from you. Just let him tell you about it on his own."

Naruto sighed and frowned. Something important happened in Sasuke's mission...something that he was sure involved Sakura.

"Fine," he said glaring at him. "But you'll tell me what I want to know!"

"I will," Sasuke answered. "Get out."

Naruto grunted. "Are you going out to train? I'll be in the training ground with Kakashi-sensei at ten."

"Hn," Sasuke responded before he started to brush his teeth.

"I'll take that as a 'yes,'" Naruto said, before he walked out of the room and used to the front door to get out of the apartment.

Sasuke heard the door shut and felt Naruto's chakra vanish from the door step.

Perhaps after that day, it would sink in.

* * *

><p>Jirotaiku winced at the blinding light touching his face.<p>

He had been so used to darkness, he started hating the light.

He grunted and muttered curses as he stretched his arms. His body was still sore. His bones seemed to crack with every move he made.

"Good morning," he heard someone greet him.

He opened his eyes and sat up. Beside the door of his hospital room was Uchiha Sasuke – his arms crossed over his chest.

Jirotaiku scratched his eyes and grunted, realizing that he wasn't a figment of his imagination. "I didn't know Uchihas are polite."

"Not everyone," Sasuke said.

Jirotaiku smirked and nodded. He turned to the source of the blinding light and realized it was a window – an open window on his left. "Damn those sexy nurses," he muttered. "What time is it?"

"Eight," Sasuke answered.

"And here I thought I'm entitled to a good sleep now that I'm a patient here in the hospital," Jirotaku hissed.

"Hn," Sasuke said, watching Jirotaiku scratch his head in irritation. "You're not bothered."

Jirotaiku looked up at him. He stared at Sasuke for a moment before he smirked. "Well, you're alive," he said. "That itself says something…Unless, you're just plotting something else."

Sasuke just watched him.

Jirotaiku noticed a basket of fruits on the bedside table. He raised a brow at Sasuke. "Are these from you?"

Sasuke didn't answer.

Jirotaiku smirked. "That stick up your ass is really stiff, huh?" he said, grabbing a banana from the basket. "This is very sweet of you."

"Hn." Sasuke said. "Thanks."

Jirotaiku stared at him again before he smiled. "I didn't do it for you."

"I know."

Jirotaiku nodded. "Good," he said. "'Coz I'd hate having you as one of my fangirls."

Sasuke glared at him.

Jirotaiku just chuckled and peeled the banana in his hand. "What are you going to do now?" he asked after taking a bite of the banana.

"I don't know," Sasuke said, looking at the open window. It overlooked a portion of the village.

"Why don't you try joining the ANBU?" Jirotaiku asked, looking at him like they had been friends for a long time. "I'm sure you'll easily get promoted with all your skills. And they would love to have you on their side for a change."

"You know the condition," Sasuke said, thinking.

"So..?" Jirotaiku asked before taking a bite of the banana again. "Six months is a long time. With your skills, you'll be able to do a lot of things in six months."

Sasuke smirked. "You're really selling this."

Jirotaiku shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see any harm in having you in the group," he said. "I'd even be glad to have missions with you. That way I can show you how weak you are compared to me."

Sasuke smiled. "I like that," he said.

Jirotaiku chuckled. "I'll see you in one of our mission briefings then."

Sasuke leaned away from the wall. "We'll see," he said before turning to the door. He stepped out to the hall in time to see a ninja carrying a food box wrapped in furoshiki cloth.

The ninja stared at him for a moment. "Uchiha Sasuke..?"

Sasuke bowed slightly before going on his way.

The ninja watched him walk farther out the hallway before he walked into Jirotaiku's room.

"Whoah! You're still alive?" Jirotaiku asked snickering at the ninja.

"I should be the one to ask you that," the ninja said walking to the bedside table. He saw the fruits and stared at it for a moment. "You're friends with Uchiha Sasuke now?"

Jirotaiku shrugged his shoulders. "Keep your friends close, your enemies closer."

The ninja raised a brow at him. "Is he really your enemy?"

Jirotaiku chuckled and scratched his head. "Well he did save my life."

The ninja sighed and placed the food on the table.

"So how are you doing, twin brother?"

"Good," he said. "I'm relieved you're better now."

"Aww," Jirotaiku crooned. "Jiroteki missed me!"

"Shut up," Jiroteki hissed, glaring at his twin.

* * *

><p>Sasuke walked down the hall that led to the Hokage's office. He had in his hand the complete report of his mission in Nanashi village.<p>

Naruto was right. People were talking about how Sakura could possibly be dead. They were looking at him as if he knew something, and they were expecting him to tell them what he knew.

But they didn't seem to be mad at him…just…curious.

Still...It wouldn't take long before he walks across Ino or Shikamaru on the street. He didn't want to talk to anyone about it yet.

So he opted to leap on the rooftops to reach the Hokage's tower. At least not many people had the chance to look at him that way.

Sasuke opened the door, expecting to see the Hokage on her desk. He had set an appointment so he didn't bother to knock on her door.

"Uchiha," Tsunade greeted. "You're submitting your report?"

"Hn," Sasuke replied, walking into the office and handing her a scroll.

Tsunade nodded and took the scroll.

Sasuke watched the Hokage read his report out of habit.

Tsunade sighed. "You've been hearing the rumors."

"Hn."

Tsunade looked up at him. "Are you planning to clear those rumors?"

Sasuke just shrugged his shoulders, looking away.

Tsunade folded her arms over her chest and leaned back on her chair. "You have three options now – I'll give you a week-long rest, I'll assign you another mission in two days, or you'll tell me what you want to do and I'll see what I can do about it."

Sasuke looked at her. "I think about it?"

"Well that could be your fourth option, sure," Tsunade said. "Meet me here tomorrow, same time with your decision."

Sasuke nodded and walked out of the office.

Six months…What was he going to do in six months?

* * *

><p>Sasuke watched Sai and Naruto spar.<p>

He went to the training ground half an hour before ten. Kakashi was incredibly early, sitting on a tree branch where Sasuke decided to join him.

"How are you?" Kakashi asked, watching Sai and Naruto throw kunais at each other. They disappeared in a fog of smoke and clashed each other again after a moment or so.

"Not sure," Sasuke answered, eyes focused on the battle below them.

Kakashi sighed. "I was chatting with Jirotaiku this morning," he said. "And he said something."

"Did he now?"

"Yup," he said. "He likes to talk…but to particular people."

Sasuke sighed. "I won't have to tell you anything then."

"Well, I'm still curious on what you want to do now."

"Hn."

Kakashi chuckled. "Not a clue."

"Annoying," Sasuke muttered, frowning. He stood up sighing and decided to walk around. He didn't feel like training, after what he had been through in Nanashi.

He felt like straining his body was the last thing he wanted to do that day.

"Later," Sasuke said before disappearing.

Kakashi smiled. He was glad Sasuke took everything well – better than he expected him to.

"Eh? Where's Teme?" Naruto asked, looking up at the branch where Kakashi sat on.

Kakashi pulled out his book from his pocket and flipped it open. "He wanted to go for a walk."

"WHAT?! But he-" Naruto exclaimed.

Kakashi chuckled. "Give him a break," he said. "He just got back last night."

"Already tired, dickless?" Sai asked, smiling widely at Naruto.

Naruto glared at him. "Tired my ass, Sai!"

And the sparring continued.

"Now what page was I?" Kakashi mumbled, flipping the pages of his book.

* * *

><p>Sasuke walked on the grassy lawn of the training grounds. He still couldn't believe he was back in Konoha – that he was walking on the place where he spent most of his childhood in.<p>

He walked to the field where the practice dummies were. He could still remember those days he spent learning how to properly throw a kunai.

Sasuke walked to the log that had served as a target to so many ninjas before him. He traced its scars with his fingers.

"Oops," he heard someone say from behind him.

Sasuke had felt his chakra approaching but decided to stay and see who it was. He turned around and saw a boy around seven, shyly retreating from the training grounds.

"You," he said, eyeing the brown-haired boy.

The boy froze and stiffly turned to look at him. "U-Uchiha-san," he greeted, bowing at him.

"You're here to train, aren't you?" he asked, walking toward him.

"Y-yes," he answered.

"Train."

The boy smiled shyly and walked to the target. He stared at the log for a moment unsure of what he should do.

Sasuke leaned his back on one of the trees, watching him. The boy seemed like he wanted to pull something out of his holster.

The boy took a deep breath and muttered something that sounded like "You're here to train. Get on with it."

Sasuke smirked. He watched the boy walk several steps away from the target. The boy pulled out a kunai and aimed it at the log. He threw the kunai on the target.

It scraped the side of the log.

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest as the boy cursed and tried to repeat the stunt. All the five kunais he threw hit the side of the log. The sixth one he tried to throw successfully hit the middle of the log, but it fell down on the ground – too shallow to stay buried on the wood.

The boy sighed, loosing hope that he would be able to do it right.

"Here," he suddenly heard Sasuke say from behind him – a hand holding his own and placing a kunai on it. He shyly looked up at Sasuke who he thought was several feet away from him.

Sasuke guided the boy's hand and threw the kunai toward the target.

It hit the target dead center. And it was buried deep in the log.

The boy gasped.

"Try doing it on your own," Sasuke said stepping back away from the boy. "Don't just rely on your arm."

The boy shyly nodded at him and excitedly tried to do what Sasuke did.

The kunai he threw hit the log. Though it didn't hit the center of the target, it buried itself on the body of the log.

"**WOW!**" the boy exclaimed, jumping ecstatically. "I did it! I hit the log! It hit the log! **I DID IT!**"

Sasuke smirked. He was a fast learner.

The boy turned to look at Sasuke. "Thank you so much, Uchiha-san!" he said bowing down in immense gratitude. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Hn," he said. "Throw ten more. Then we'll work on your aim."

The boy smiled excitedly at him. "You'll really teach me, Uchiha-san?"

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders. "Do you want me to?"

"**ABSOLUTELY!** I promise I'll be a really good student! I'll practice really hard and I'll train everyday!"

"Start throwing those kunais," Sasuke said turning away to stand in the shade of a tree.

"**YES!**" the boy exclaimed, raising his arms up, before he turned back to the target and did what Sasuke said.

Sasuke sighed.

He couldn't believe he was training a kid. He must really be missing Kaitaro's annoying daughter.

* * *

><p><em>Nope. It was not a genjutsu. Nor was it a nightmare. It all happened. And Sasuke is indeed back in Konoha. <em>* v *


	55. Chapter 55

_Sorry for the late update! I got quite a lot of things to do again and this was the only time I had to upload a chapter. _

_Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing the previous chapter. And for all your patience with me._

_I agree with your comment there, _**crazymel2008**_. Sasuke should find a way to bring Sakura back, shouldn't he?_

_Unfortunately, _**sasxsak5232**_, I don't think me overtly telling you all what happened to Sakura through an AN would be appropriate. I believe it would ruin the whole flow of the story. I did drop some hints on the previous chapter. _^ v ^_ I thought I forgot to put it there since those who reviewed it didn't seem to have noticed it, but it's there. I checked it again. It's still there. _

_Ooh and _**01Trycia-chan01**_ mentioned it in her review! ^ v ^ I guess it really was too vague to figure out though since...well hehe… My apologies._

_Thank you for that comment, _**2oatmealcookies**_**! **__Don't worry, I know criticism helps writers. _^ v ^_ All the criticisms in my work help me see my flaws and rooms of improvement. As for that line, I'll try to avoid it. Though just to be honest with you, I intentionally repeated the phrase to emphasize a point. My sincere apologies for making Kakashi sound stupid…_

"_is Sakura dead or is she alive?" _^ v ^_ sorry, not answering the question through ANs. Like Kakashi said, "Just let him tell you about her on his own."_

_So here is this week's chapter. _

* * *

><p>Six months.<p>

Sasuke walked out of the Hokage's office, squinting at the bright morning light. He had just submitted a report about his recently accomplished mission.

Jirotaiku was right. Ibiki and the elders tried to make the process excruciatingly slow since Sasuke was an ex-outlaw. But Sasuke's skills, abilities and change of priority convinced them they should be part of the ANBU two months later.

But he didn't work as an ANBU full time. He was still given several missions where he wasn't required to put on a mask and hide his identity.

"UCHIHA-SAMA!" he heard a boy call him from a far. He turned to see Ishi, the boy he taught how to throw a kunai properly six months ago, running excitedly toward him. "YOU'RE BACK! I practiced and did really well in class. Iruka-sensei was really impressed with me!"

Sasuke spared the boy a smirk. "Hn," he said, patting the boy's head.

Ishi chuckled, knowing Sasuke was telling him he did a good job. "I owe it to you, Uchiha-sama."

"Who threw the kunai?" Sasuke asked.

Ishi looked confused at him for a moment. "M-me..?"

"Exactly," Sasuke muttered before turning away from the boy.

Ishi chuckled and pulled the sleeves of Sasuke's kimono to walk closely beside him. He knew where Sasuke was headed and decided to go there with him since he didn't have much to do.

The two reached the training grounds where Naruto was arguing with a group of genin ninjas around Ishi's age.

"That's not how you do it!" exclaimed a boy, frowning at Naruto.

"You're not teaching us the right way to do it!" seconded a girl in the group.

"That's not how Uchiha-sama does it!" shouted another boy pouting at Naruto.

"Not true!" Naruto argued – his arms crossed over his chest. "He learned that technique from me! In fact, he learned **all** his tricks from me. I'm way better than him, you know."

Sasuke raised a brow at the scene.

Ishi sighed. "Neh, Naruto," he said frowning at Naruto. "Don't lie."

Naruto and the kids looked at them. He smiled widely at Sasuke. "Welcome back, Teme!"

"Hn," Sasuke replied. "Dobe."

"UCHIHA-SAMA!" the kids excitedly exclaimed. They ran to Sasuke, each one pulling on his kimono.

"Are you going to teach us how to do your chidori today?" asked a boy from the group.

"Are you going to teach us how to do the katon?" asked another.

"Are you going to teach us how to do the sharingan?" asked a girl.

"You can't do sharingan, idiot," a boy from the group said frowning at the girl. "You're not an Uchiha."

The girl's face saddened – her lips in a pout. Tears peaked out from her brown eyes.

Sasuke froze at the sight of her flushed cheeks.

Now and again, he would catch a glimpse of Sakura's face. It happened usually when he was alone, or in the places where he had been with her. Most of the time, it was when he was seeing little Himiko weep…just like at that very moment.

"Himiko-chan's such a cry baby," muttered Taro, frowning at Himiko. His cheeks were flushed with embarrassment, knowing that it was his retort that made her upset.

Ishi watched Himiko weep – his eyes too deep to read.

"OI! Friends don't make friends cry!" Naruto shouted, glaring at Taro and the other boys.

"But she's really a cry baby!" reasoned Nao, pointing to the sobbing girl.

Sasuke noticed Himiko look up – her eyes locking into Ishi's. Her cheeks flushed for a moment and she stopped crying.

"Real ninjas don't make girls cry," Naruto reprimanded. "Are you real ninjas?"

Nao, Taro and the other boys looked guiltily away.

"Apologize to Himiko-chan!" Naruto ordered.

Himiko looked up at them, smiling. "It's okay," she said. "I do cry a lot. And I have to get over that if I'm to become a great ninja."

Sasuke watched the boys feel more guilty about what they did. Ishi however only looked as composed as his mentor.

Naruto shook his head. "Great ninjas also need to be brave enough to admit their faults! No buts! Apologize!"

"Sorry, Himiko-chan," the group mumbled.

"Neh, Uchiha-sama," Taro said, obviously wanting to change the topic of discussion. "Are you going to teach us how to become a powerful ninja?"

"OI! I'm a way more powerful ninja than, Teme!" Naruto exclaimed.

"No you're not! You're a 'dobe'!"

"What the- COME HERE!"

And with that, Naruto chased them in circles in the training ground, each kid snickering and teasing him like he wasn't a jounin.

Ishi looked at Sasuke, wondering if Sasuke was planning on teaching them. He had been helping them practice some basic techniques that they were learning from the academy. And since he went to the training ground, he thought he would train them again.

But Sasuke's eyes looked far beyond Naruto and the children…beyond the training grounds.

Ishi noticed Sasuke stiffen and quickly look to his left. "Uchiha –sama..?"

Sasuke heard a high-pitched jingling sound – like the bells Kakashi wanted them to take from him when they first trained as a team.

He immediately looked to where it came…somewhere in his left…in the trees…

He instinctively held his hand out, catching the breeze. He clenched his hand and brought it close to his chest.

He stared at it for a moment, suddenly feeling anxious and excited.

When the message was sent, he would know. And he did. The question now was…Was it good news?

Ishi watched Sasuke slowly open his clenched fist, knowing his mentor's thoughts were far beyond his reach. He gasped as Sasuke's fingers revealed a pink petal…A Sakura petal sitting on his palm.

He looked confused at Sasuke. He was sure Sasuke grasped nothing but air. And there weren't any Sakura trees nearby…And it wasn't spring time!

Sasuke sighed, relief washing six months of fear and anxiety. He smiled at the petal that brought good news.

Ishi felt Sasuke pat his head. "Not today," he said. "Be good." He then watched Sasuke walk away – the petal tucked once more in Sasuke's closed palm.

Somehow, he felt he wouldn't be able to see Sasuke again…for a long while.

"OI! TEME! You just got here! We have training to do! Where are you going?" Naruto shouted, seeing Sasuke walk away. The children stopped running to see Sasuke vanish into the woods.

"He has something important he needs to do," Ishi said, smiling at Naruto.

Naruto stiffened. He had heard Jirotaiku and Kakashi talk about Sasuke, six months before Sasuke was admitted as an ANBU ninja.

It had been exactly six months since he came back from his mission, and he had not told him anything about Sakura. He just told him to be patient for once. Kakashi himself didn't seem to press him about it.

Sakura's whereabouts remained a mystery in Konoha. Many of her suitors volunteered to look for her. But the Hokage saw no need for it and ignored their requests. Sasuke thought they were being foolish.

Many believed she was dead. Her devoted suitors believed Sasuke killed her. Those who envied her believed she betrayed Konoha. But almost everyone in Konoha hoped she was alive…and that Sasuke was protecting her, hence his silence.

Naruto was one of those who hoped and believed that she was alive. He knew, by Sasuke's actions that she was, and that he was waiting…for what exactly, he didn't know.

"Aww…And I thought he'd teach us his Katon!" muttered Taro.

Naruto's face turned serious. "You kids start training," he said. "I'm going to help Sasuke." He then ran quickly to follow him.

"What's going on?" Himiko asked Ishi.

Ishi shrugged his shoulders. "Last one to hit the target is lame."

Taro and the others quickly hurled their kunai at the training dummies.

* * *

><p>Tsunade sat on her chair, staring at Sasuke who stood calmly across from her.<p>

Silence filled the room for the past two minutes…right after Sasuke sought her permission to leave Konoha.

It had been exactly six months since he returned, and she knew, by his presence in her office and request, that he received the message. But his request wasn't something that could easily be granted, not when there were still high-ranking ninjas wary about his loyalty. So his request was something Tsunade didn't hope to hear from him.

Tsunade watched Sasuke's dark eyes stare straight at her. He wasn't pulling a joke…not that he even did in the past but… It was just…

"You do know this isn't going to be easy," she began.

Sure, he got promoted to a higher ninja status, and he worked as an ANBU, but that didn't mean everyone trusted him…not when he had the tendency to return to his old self anytime. Six months just wasn't long enough for much of the ninjas in the village to believe that Sasuke no longer had plans of destroying the peace.

Sakura was still missing too, and rumors of Sasuke's involvement in the matter weren't overtly clarified under Sasuke's own decision.

She understood it though, the silence.

"Hn."

Tsunade glared at him. She hated that one-word reply of his. He was just too damn confident for his own good. "The elders will need persuading."

And they would be all over Tsunade's head if she simply let Sasuke out of the village gates…Not that she minded. She didn't like the elders, nor did she like pleasing them. But it wasn't easy being the object of their soaring tempers.

"As long as I get to leave tonight," Sasuke said.

Tsunade frowned. Sure he knew she was on his side. But couldn't he at least consider the pain she's into for being his ally? "I can't promise I'll be able to convince them by then."

"Then I'll leave tonight."

Tsunade grunted. Uchihas and their arrogant demeanors… "You're going to trigger another war against you."

"I have to leave," Sasuke answered, as calmly as he had always been. It was as if he didn't see any threat to his life.

Tsunade sighed and scratched her head. Of course Sasuke had to leave. She knew he would have to do so eventually…six months after he returned… But it was just frustrating to know he wouldn't be easily allowed to get out from the village again. It took her quite a while to convince the elders to let Sasuke leave for that mission in Nanashi. And though he did come back like a fully reformed ninja, what were the odds that he would do the same if he left the village this time?

"I'll see what I can do," Tsunade muttered. "How long would you be away?"

"A year," Sasuke answered turning to leave.

Tsunade cursed. And it had to be that long! She started rummaging through the scrolls on her desk the minute Sasuke left her office.

She would have to find a way to convince the elders to be patient this time – to believe that Sasuke would return a year later, with no intention of harming anyone in Konoha.

* * *

><p>"Have you heard the news?" Jiroteki said, standing on the branch of a tree where his twin was perched, yawning.<p>

It was around noon when the news spread. The Hokage called for a meeting and those who overheard spread the gossip, but only to those who had were already up the ladder.

"What news?" Jirotaiku asked, stretching his arms up. He had been sitting on the branch for an hour – relaxing. This was one of the things he liked to do when he didn't have any mission to do, other than train of course – relax and sleep on a sturdy tree branch, feel the breeze cradle him, and the shade from the leaves keep the sun from disturbing him.

"Uchiha wants to leave the village," Jiroteki answered.

Jirotaiku raised a brow, his eyes focused on the greenery below them. "Oh?"

He expected Sasuke would leave the village in six months. After all, that was the condition…or part of it.

"Any details on how he exactly did so?" Jirotaiku asked. "Like what he looked like when he told the Hokage, how he said the words..?"

Jiroteki frowned at his brother. "Would you tell me what you know if I answer that?"

Jirotaiku laughed. "Never mind," he said.

Jiroteki sighed. His brother still didn't tell him anything about his mission in Nanashi. Sure, that was expected of them – not sharing any information about their missions to anyone. But seeing how it affected the village…how it could possibly explain what happened to Sakura…

He expected Jirotaiku to at least assure him that she was fine. He knew how found he was of Sakura. But whenever he asked him about her, he just chuckled and changed the topic of the conversation.

The closest answer he received for his questions about Sakura was "Chill. Just trust me."

And it didn't make any sense!

"Does this mean Sakura's alive?" Jiroteki asked.

Jirotaiku rolled his eyes. "Again with the question," he muttered. "Last time I checked, the earth revolved around the sun – not around Sakura."

Jiroteki glared at him. "I wouldn't exactly be asking you that if you gave me a straight answer."

"Well I can't give you a straight answer since I wasn't the last person who was with her," Jirotaiku said, looking up at his brother. "Have you tried asking Uchiha?"

Jiroteki frowned.

He had. And Sasuke dismissed the question. At one point, he even told Jiroteki to ask Jirotaiku about it instead.

"He said I should ask you."

Jirotaiku grunted. "That bastard," he muttered. "Well I can't tell you anything, and that's a fact. You'll just have to wait."

"Wait for what?"

Jirotaiku shrugged his shoulders. He was done with the topic.

Jiroteki sighed. "Well then, is it alright with you if Sasuke left the village?" he asked. "I heard he's planning to stay away from the village for a year."

Jirotaiku smirked. "They're scared he'll come back as the Konoha destroyer," he said.

"Well he **does** have the tendency to be one."

Jirotaiku shook his head. "**Everyone** has a tendency to be one."

Jiroteki narrowed his eyes. "Don't talk like that."

Jirotaiku chuckled. "Don't worry. I haven't been planning on destroying any ninja village."

Jiroteki rolled his eyes. "You still haven't answered my question."

Jirotaiku stood up. "You're not asking about my opinion on his leave request, are you?" he asked, stretching his back.

Jiroteki raised a brow at him.

"You're asking about what I think the Hokage and the elders should do about his request," Jirotaiku said.

Jiroteki looked away.

Jirotaiku chuckled. "It's simple, really," he said. "They just need to answer one question."

Jiroteki looked confused at his brother.

Jirotaiku smirked at him. "Do they want Sakura back in the village or not?" he said.

Jiroteki stiffened.

Sakura then was-

"Jiro-"

Jirotaiku waved a finger at him. "Na-uh," he said. "I didn't tell you anything. And I won't be telling you anything more." He winked and disappeared.

Jiroteki cursed. His brother just dropped a clue, and yet he still couldn't figure out the bigger picture!

* * *

><p>Sasuke folded some of his clothes and tucked them deep into his backpack.<p>

He had no plans of waiting for the decision of the Hokage. Well he knew the Hokage wouldn't mind if he left. The decision he was supposed to wait for was the one from the elders, which he didn't really care about.

Sure, Konoha was better, but it wasn't purely because of the elders' decisions. So why bother paying that much respect to them?

"So you're really leaving?" he heard Kakashi say.

He had felt his former mentor perch on the ledge of his bedroom's open window.

"Hn," Sasuke muttered, keeping his eyes on his work. He was looking at the set of clothes that still lay strewn over the bed. He still couldn't decide if he should bring some winter clothes.

Kakashi nodded. "Well," he said. "Say 'hi' to her for me. He then turned away to leap out of the window.

Sasuke paused and sighed. "I'll be away for a year…or so," he said.

Kakashi nodded, looking out at the village.

"I can't promise," Sasuke said.

"I know," Kakashi said. "I'll keep hoping for the best though. I've decided I will."

Sasuke smirked.

"I'll see you in a year."

"Hn," Sasuke replied. He then felt Kakashi's chakra vanish from the vicinity. He lifted his gaze and looked at the picture of Team 7 on his bedside table.

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke looked so much older than the three genin ninjas in the picture. So many things have changed.

"I want us to have another picture," he remembered Naruto tell him one time when they had lunch in Ichiraku. "The three of us and Kakashi-sensei. It would be awesome!"

Sasuke looked down at his bag.

Yes…It seemed like a good idea.

* * *

><p>Tsunade looked out at the night sky.<p>

It was a quiet evening. The breeze was chilly, but gentle. The moon was full enough to light even the deepest furrows of the woods. The clouds glided smoothly in the sky.

It looked like another peaceful evening in Konoha except…it wasn't.

Tsunade sipped her sake as she stood by her window, looking at the rooftops and empty streets.

The elders, as expected, did not want Sasuke to go. They wanted him dead, than have him plotting against Konoha for a year. They didn't have any assurance that Sasuke wouldn't come back as a villain. So the prudes of group wanted Sasuke executed instead.

It seemed like the Uchiha name had been permanently stained. And it was frustrating. Sasuke, for the past six months, did not show any sign of hatred against the village. He diligently finished his missions and kept his team mates alive in the process. He was reported helping out some genin ninjas who were having trouble with keeping up in basic weaponry trainings. The children seemed to like him now. They respected him even without knowing about how deadly he was.

The villagers had also seen how Sasuke had returned to the boy they once knew. He didn't smile that much, nor did he initiate conversations. But he was seen with his batch mates – the Rookie 9 – especially with Naruto. He acknowledged the people who cared about him.

And yet, with all those changes, the prudes still didn't trust him enough to let him walk out of the village gates alive.

"Uchiha Sasuke is not in his apartment, Hokage-sama," an ANBU ninja reported just minutes ago.

She had sent the ANBU to deliver the decision of the elders about his request.

Tsunade smirked at the clouds slowly gliding to blanket the moon. She looked down at the empty streets and saw something yellow flash in the darkness.

"You're just in time," she muttered.

* * *

><p>Sasuke looked at the empty concrete bench on the side of the street. The leaves of the trees danced to the silent tune of the breeze.<p>

He remembered that bench. He thought he had forgotten it in his rage-driven exploits, but the memory stayed there…somewhere… And it flashed into his consciousness when he laid eyes on the empty bench.

The evening reminded him of that night – the night he decided to put Konoha behind him. And the bench reminded him of the infatuated genin who tried to stop him – who begged him to stay with her and confessed her love to him.

The one he gave a 'thank you' to, before leaving her on the bench unconscious.

Sasuke walked to the bench and ran his fingers on its surface.

There was no trace of her there anymore – just the memory that he thought he had lost, but he found when he was released from prison.

Yet he could see an image of her there, curled and weeping.

Sasuke closed his eyes.

He remembered her pale pink tresses tangled in dried blood…the gaping holes, cuts, and purple bruises on limbs…her face reflecting nothing but sorrow and agony…her corpse, the feel of her lifeless body against his chest.

He felt pain surge through his chest, making every beat of his heart painful.

Six months and it still pained him – Sakura's death. Jirotaiku said it might take a year for him to recover. But six months had passed and he still didn't feel like he was better.

His nightmares, though a lot of them filled with deaths he had mourned for since he was young, always ended with the latest addition to his tragic memories – the one where he held Sakura's blood-stained body in his arms.

He could feel the desperation he felt back then, the pain as the truth sunk into his system – the fact that there was nothing more that he could do to keep her alive.

He didn't know if that one gesture he did in return for all the sacrifices she had done for him and as proof of what he had told her that night, even reached her. By the time he leaned away from her, her heart had stopped beating.

He remembered waiting for the next beat to come, to thump against his chest, but seconds passed and it never came. He remembered pumping her chest, breathing air into her lungs, feeling warm water spread out on her chest…tasting blood…

Sasuke opened his eyes.

The bench was empty.

"-KE!" he heard a familiar voice call out from the way he came. "SASUKE!"

He turned and saw Naruto anxious and running toward him.

"What the- You're really leaving?" Naruto asked, his blue eyes wide with shock at the bag on Sasuke's back.

His friend seemed dressed for a mission.

"I-Is this a mission?" Naruto asked, knowing in the back of his mind that it wasn't. He heard the rumors. Shikamaru, for the first time, was kind enough to tell him Sasuke requested a leave of absence.

Sasuke looked at him for a moment. Naruto wouldn't be that anxious if he didn't know about why he was there.

And here he thought no one was going to stop him this time.

Naruto sighed. "Is this about Sakura?"

Sasuke just looked at him.

Naruto frowned. "I've tried to be really patient with you, Sasuke," he said. "I didn't ask you about her even when I wanted to. I didn't torture you even when I wanted to force you into telling me what I wanted to know. I respected you, Sasuke. And now you're leaving again – just like that – without telling me a damn thing! TEME! I'm your friend! I'm Sakura's friend! I deserve to know what happened to her!"

Sasuke smirked. "One year," he said.

Naruto stared puzzled at Sasuke.

Sasuke walked closer to Naruto. The wind howled. The dance of the leaves echoed louder. "Give me one year," he whispered.

"W-What..?"

"One year," Sasuke said. "I'll see you then, and tell you everything you want to know."

Naruto frowned. He trusted him, so though he hated to wait for one more year to hear what he wanted to hear, he knew he would wait.

"Is she alive?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke smiled. He then turned away and vanished.

It took him a while to get over the fact that Sasuke smiled. When her did, he sighed and sat down on the bench, sulking.

One year. He would have to wait for one freaking year just to know if she was alive?!

"Damn it," he hissed. "**Damn you, Teme!"**

* * *

><p>Sasuke excitedly leaped from one branch to another – his eyes fixed at the path that would lead him to his destination.<p>

Six months passed quickly, but for him it lasted too long. He had wanted to get out of Konoha the minute he surrendered the journal to Tsunade.

But Houren had a point.

It wouldn't exactly do him any good – staying away from Konoha. It would only make the elders think he was trying to destroy the village. And Sakura won't like it.

Sakura…

He leaped quickly toward the next branch, feeling the icy breeze touch his cheeks.

It flashed in his mind – the nightmare.

"S-Sakura!" Sasuke breathlessly cried as he crawled faster to reach her. The snow had numbed his body when his hand grasped her arm.

He pushed the Oto ninja's corpse off of Sakura and quickly hovered over her, checking her pulse.

She was closer to a shade of purple.

Sasuke gasped – his vision blurring. "Sakura," he whispered, wiping the blood stains on her face. "S-Sakura, stay with me!"

He quickly checked her other pulse points, thinking he might have read the one in her neck wrong. Her chest barely moved. Her heart beat…

"N-no," Sasuke breathed, tears sliding down Sakura's forehead. "No, please…Sakura," he said shaking his head and pulling her close to his chest. "Please, Sakura," Sasuke whispered, ignoring the tears streaming down his cheeks. He held her head in his arm and tried to lift her up from the ground.

They had to go. They had to reach Konoha.

He forced himself to stand with Sakura's weight on his arms…but he ended up stumbling down on the snow.

His body was just too weak.

"Sakura, stay with me!" Sasuke shouted, shakily sitting up and cradling Sakura in his arms. "**Please!**"

Sasuke held Sakura close, feeling every weak beat of her heart. He looked around him. It was dark and no one else was in sight.

Sasuke shook his head and kissed her forehead. His lips felt the chill on her blood-stained skin. There had to be a way to save her. There just **had** to be a way.

"…Either you leave now and forget, or you relieve her now and take her with you," Houren's words echoed in the ice-cold breeze.

He won't kill her. **HE WON'T KILL HER!**

Sasuke held Sakura's cold cheek in his trembling hand.

The pauses in her heart beat were far longer than before.

"Sakura," he began. He placed a soft kiss her nose…forehead…and cheeks. "Sakura, can you hear me? I'm sorry. I'm sorry I did all those things. You're right. I can live in the present. I still have a family. I still have Dobe, Kakashi-sensei…and you. Sakura, I get it now. I'm sorry. **Stay** with me, please. We'll go back to Konoha together."

Sasuke closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers. "Sakura…" he said opening his eyes and leaning away to look at her face. "I love you. I love you, Sakura," Sasuke said sobbing and watching his tears slide down her cheeks. "**I love you**."

It was his last attempt to revive her. He leaned closer to her, locked his lips with hers and blew air into her lungs…But he felt blood soak the garment that covered her chest. He knew then that he wouldn't be able to save her.

He leaned away, shook his head, ignored how loud he was weeping and did the one thing he thought he could never do.

He kissed her. He kissed her with a need to keep her alive…a need to wake her up… a need to keep her. He ignored the taste of blood in his mouth and allowed himself to stoop that low – so low that all the ice in his insides melted. When he leaned away, everything fell silent.

…Even her heartbeat.

Sasuke found himself at the edge of the village…to the place where it all ended, and where it all began…

For years, it had been dead…At least that was what he heard from the ANBU ninjas who guarded his cell. After the battle that permanently rid the world of Madara, all trace of life in the valley vanished into nothing but death.

The clear waterfall was replaced by violent, muddy flood. Its sturdy solid walls crumbled and its rocky plane became a greedy monster that devoured anything that dared to step on it.

But in time, nature healed it once more – the pouring water down its cliff cleared and again created a work of art that kept anyone from remembering the lives that had been lost in its bosom.

Sasuke looked down at the waterfall, feeling his blood rush through his veins with its violent flow. Its deafening pour called to him…serenaded him…enticed him…

This was where Sakura really lost her life for him – where Sasuke lost to Naruto, and where he lost his thirst for vengeance.

Sasuke looked up at the sky. It was only when he reached the valley that it emerged from the clouds. If he didn't know better, he'd think it was on his side – like the guards who dismissed his presence that night to let him get away from the village.

He took a deep breath, inhaling the last air from Konoha that he would breathe. He closed his eyes, smiled and let himself fall head-first with the rushing water.

The deafening echo of the rushing water filled his senses.

He saw himself crying over the corpse of the woman he wanted to save…Felt the breeze touch his cheeks…a presence fill his senses…

Sasuke found himself in front of an extravagant temple – an overwhelming set of steps daring him to reach the structure.

He anxiously looked around him.

…A garden…A garden of trees that had a long stone path leading to…a village that stood across the temple – right behind him.

Sasuke felt his jaw drop. The village, though cluttered with roofs, towering buildings, and streets looked…different from Konoha, or from any village he had seen.

And it was so alive. He could see the people, the size of ants, doing their chores with smiles on their faces – contentment. He realized that everything around him – the green plants, the colorful blossoming trees, the singing birds above him, the bright blue sky, the rejuvenating glow of the sun, and the refreshing breeze made him feel content and happy.

Sasuke turned to look at the steps again. It seemed like a hundred steps at most.

But it didn't matter. He was there for a reason.

Sasuke walked up the concrete steps, marveling at the trees that formed a surreal canopy above his head. It made the breeze cooler, more relaxing than it already was.

He felt his heart jump as he felt so sure for the first time in six months.

Sasuke realized that Houren stood a few paces away from him in the snow.

He looked up at him – shaking, trembling, sobbing…

"Please," he breathed, feeling the chill devour his body – get hold of his soul. "Save…h-her…I will do…any-th-thing… I… I will do **anything**."

"Anything..?" Houren asked gliding on the snow to approach him. His eyes looked empty of emotion. "You will do anything in return?"

"Yes," Sasuke answered weakly, feeling the chill in his limbs turn to pain…numbness…agony… "**YES! **I'll do anything for her…"

Houren smirked. "Do you still remember?"

Yes. He still remembered.

"How…How then can I save her?" he remembered asking Houren that day, his hands shaking in anxiety. He turned to the flower. The tips of the flower petals were slowly turning brown as if it was being burned. "The Anrui flower…The flower can still save her, right? There's still a way to form something from this flower! …Something that can save her!"

He remembered Houren's eyes fill itself with sadness. "Sasuke," Houren began. "Death is the only thing that can save Sakura."

It crushed him. He felt like the world crumbled over him again. He wanted to insist that Houren was lying – that he was just playing with him!

But it all made sense. The seal would vanish when the chakra enforcing it vanished – when Sakura died.

He remembered falling to his knees, trembling and denying the truth that had always been in front of him all along.

"Remember though," Houren said. "What I told you? About how I can bring humans back to life?"

Sasuke looked up at him – hope calming his trembling limbs. "Save her then! You care about her, don't you?"

Houren shook his head. "It's not that easy," he said. "The technique I would have to do to her is different. It would need…extra care…and it will…cost you."

"C-Cost me..?"

"It's not that expensive, really. Just…a year of servitude," Houren answered.

Sasuke stared confused at Houren. "S-servitude…?"

Houren shrugged his shoulders. "You're going to run errands for me, fetch some things, it will just be like you doing missions for Konoha. The only difference of course, is that you're doing it for me, **and** for Sakura."

"You want me to be your slave," he breathed.

"I don't want to see it that way, but if you want to, it's your choice," Houren said. "It will still depend on you, Sasuke – if you accept the offer of being my…'slave.'"

Sasuke remembered gaping at Houren – wondering if he was really hearing what he thought he heard. He would be under someone else's control again? Like a puppet…another tool!

"Oh and one more thing," Houren said. "Sakura can't return to Konoha for that year, and for the six months before that."

Sasuke glared at him. "You're playing with me," he hissed.

Houren smiled. "I told you I'll be using a different technique for her," he said. "And that technique won't be permanent. If she gets too far away from me or from where she should be, she will die. And I won't be able to bring her back to life."

Sasuke couldn't help but stare puzzled at Houren. He would understand if Houren asked for human sacrifices. That was how Orochimaru revived the dead.

But…servitude? And Sakura would die again if she went back home? What if it was his way of taking advantage of Sakura? His way of taking advantage of Sasuke!

"You're not the only one I offered this arrangement to, you know," Houren said. "That's why you found her there in the house."

Sasuke stiffened. She was kept there…to follow…

His eyes went wide.

Jirotaiku.

Sasuke saw the open temple doors at the top of the stairs. Fifty more steps and he would reach the hall…see what he came for…**know**…

He hastened his steps and marched to the top two steps at a time.

He remembered the condition. And when Houren asked him in that dreadful night about it the offer, it filled his thoughts clear as day.

Did he care if he became a tool again? Come to think of it, being a ninja itself is being someone else's tool. You're paid to do things. The Hokage just made it his duty to make sure that every mission was worth the effort – that it was really needed, and that it benefitted more people than few.

Did he care if he wouldn't be able to go back to Konoha for a year? Why did he even want to go back there? …For his apartment? …For his things? …For the hideous memories?

…For Naruto and the others? For Sakura..?

"**Anything**," Sasuke remembered telling Houren that night as he cradled Sakura's corpse in his arms. "I will do **anything**, even be your slave…Just help her…**Please**…"

Sasuke reached the top of the stairs, gasping for breath. He saw the open door – the hall…the familiar temple hall where he found himself in after agreeing to Houren's condition.

He walked further into the hall, remembering the giant red pillars that held supported the floors above.

It was there that he finally found the strength to let her go – to trust someone else to take care of her for the next six months. After he was tended and dressed by the temple servants, he was sent back to Konoha through a portal that led to the Valley of the End.

He remembered seeing Sakura's body being placed in a glass coffin filled with water. He noticed how, after Houren skin touched hers…her chest began to move as if…as if she was breathing once more.

"She would be kept here until her body recovers," Houren told him. "I'll be speeding up the process so we stay in the time agreed upon before – six months."

Sasuke found himself staring at Houren.

"We will wake her once her body is strong enough," Houren continued. "I can't promise all would go well though, so I suggest you keep your mouth shut. It might take longer."

"So she'll be in a coma…under water..?"

"That's not water," he remembered Houren say, smirking at him. "She won't drown. Her body would need a year or more to recover. That fluid she's in speeds up the process and cuts it to six months. I'll send for you six months after you've returned to Konoha. A portal will be left open in the Valley of the End before midnight. If you don't reach this temple by midnight, I will have no choice but to let Sakura go."

Sasuke walked down the halls, looking for Houren but hoping to see someone else…someone whose green eyes he longed to see…

"Sasuke!" he heard Houren's voice call from a hallway as he made his way to the main hall.

He turned to see Houren in a hanfu made of blue and white silk, gliding down the hall and sighing in relief.

"Thank heavens you came," he said smiling at him. "You have no idea how much I would hate letting Sakura go. If those prudes didn't have to impose so much on me, I'd keep her whether you came or not. But they had to be in-charge since I seem too 'immature' for my position. This way! We need to discuss something very important too."

Sasuke followed him but his thoughts were too busy imagining what Sakura might look like six months after he left her that his ear had dismissed much of what Houren was blabbering about.

They turned to several hallways, passed several rooms, and reached an open hall that had a porch facing the temple's garden.

"We have a bit of a problem," Houren said, offering Sasuke a seat on the table as he ordered prepared some tea.

But Sasuke's eyes had wondered to the porch, remembering his dream of standing on one with Sakura seated beside him. His eyes admired the lively colorful flowers and graceful butterflies fluttering around them.

He noticed the falling blossoms – yellow ones and white ones. He noticed that there weren't that much Sakura trees in the temple and-pink..?

Sasuke stiffened, seeing something pink in the garden. He immediately walked to the porch – his eyes seeking the pink that he saw in the garden.

"You remember how…unresponsive Sakura was back then?" he asked, his mind too busy phrasing the proper words to tell Sasuke the bad news. "Well Yoake locked her in an illusion, hinged on her deepest regrets and her deepest fear."

Sasuke saw the woman clad in layers of red robes…a silk hanfu dress that was embroidered with images of spring. The ends of the dress glided softly on the grass.

He swallowed at the sight of her lively pink hair, tied up in a bun with long strands of hair loose and touching her chest…and the exposed smooth and fair skin on her neck.

She had her back turned toward him – her eyes looking at something she held in her raised palms…a bird? And injured bird..?

She raised the bird up and watched it flap its wings. She let it go and smiled as the bird stayed in mid-air, and quickly flew to the nearby tree branch above her.

"When you killed Yoake," Houren said placing the cups of tea on the table, still too occupied to realize that Sasuke was already out in the garden. "The illusion should have stopped, but it became so real to Sakura that her own fears and regrets fuelled the illusion. With her senses beyond her reach, her consciousness thought that what she was seeing was a reality." he said. "When we woke her up and she realized that she was still alive," he said looking up.

He gasped as he realized Sasuke had already done what he didn't want him to do. He cursed and rushed to the porch and saw Sasuke barely a few steps away from the woman.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke smiled, seeing her vibrant green eyes smile at the seeing bird now perched on the branch. He felt his heart swell. He wanted nothing but to hold her.

She watched her stiffen, and slowly look at him.

She was as beautiful as he hoped she would be with the color of life on her skin…and more, he realized as he gazed at her green eyes.

He was sure that if he was stuck in an illusion at that very moment, he wouldn't dare use his sharingan to get out of it.

"Sasuke wait!" Houren said quickly walking to Sasuke.

"Sakura," Sasuke breathed, smiling at her…too ecstatic to think it wasn't something Uchiha Sasuke would do. "You're alive." He could feel tears fill his eyes…tears of relief and happiness and-

Sakura tilted her head slightly, as if she was studying his face. "I'm sorry," she said, in the voice he longed to hear for the past six months. "But…Do I know you?"

Sasuke froze. All the relief and joy and excitement he felt turned into confusion.

Did he hear that right..? Sakura…Sakura asked him if she knew him..?

Houren sighed and placed his hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

Sasuke quickly looked at Houren – hurt and bafflement clear in his dark eyes.

Houren sadly looked at him. "I'm sorry," he said.

* * *

><p>"<em>How many chapter do you plan to write?" - 55. <em>^ v ^_ I understand it's gotten annoyingly long. Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing Scroll, and for being really patient and interactive with the twists and turns of this story. I'm really glad at the response this fanfic got. I didn't really expect that it would interest that many readers. _

_Thank you all also for the comments and suggestions on the story. I really learned a lot from them. It's a great honor for me to have all of you as readers of my baby, "Scroll."_


	56. Happy New Year!

_Like I said below: _

_I don't write epilogues. _^ v ^

_Sequel is up: Reconnaissance_

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><p>Naotake ran swiftly down the dark hall, adrenaline rushing through his veins like water from a recently shattered dam.<p>

It was a simple mission…for an ANBU mission – reach a village, obtain the target, and gather intelligence in the process. But as usual, the plans screwed up. And there he was with his team, racing through the halls of an empty stone building in the middle of the night and hoping their target was still alive.

The target had important information about a group rumored to be plotting against Konoha. It was imperative to get him under Konoha's wing, or at least under the ANBU's torture chambers.

Naotake heard Ouga scream his lungs out from the end of the hall. Apparently, the target was now sober enough to react to threats on his life.

Itaro Ouga, a drunkard gambler, was involved with trading various things underground – weapons, opium, women, slaves…And in the process of earning tons of dirty money, he stumbled upon the group that was rumored to be cooking something to destroy Konoha.

When Naotake and his team was sent out into the village to get Ouga, they were warned that he would be uncooperative and that they would encounter enemy ninjas on the way.

Ouga indeed was uncooperative, laughing their threats off and caring only for his sake bottles...oh and boasting about how no one, even the Konoha ninjas would be able to locate the hard-earned money he kept under his bed.

After battling a group of hired assassins, Ouga ran away – not that Naotake and his team lost him. They were obviously on the man's tail even now.

But when they caught up with the drunkard after that particular encounter, all the happy-go-lucky sneers on Ouga's face was wiped away. Fear flooded his features and he kept on shouting about someone who was out to get him.

And he seemed to be more afraid of that someone than any ninja or assassin they told him about.

Naotake leaped up into the end of the hall, only to gasp in shock and skid to a stop.

…The hall they had been running on led to a door-sized square on the wall of the building that overlooked the roofs of other abandoned structures. They were on the eight floor of the building and the nearest roof reached only the structure's fourth floor.

"Dead end!" he called behind him, warning his team mates. He then climbed to the side of the building to give the others enough space to stop themselves.

He stood on a protruding iron rod, looking out for any sign of the stinky drunkard he wanted to torture.

He had been quite a pain. The fact that the drunkard had escaped them twice was a huge insult to him, and to Konoha. Though the first one was probably aided by someone who wanted to kidnap him, and the second one most likely was once again out of that someone's attempt to get him away, it was humiliating.

Naotake remembered how Ouga panicked when they got hold of him earlier that night. He was screaming help and talking nonsense – "The devil is coming!" to be specific.

They pressed him for more information, but the drunkard only said that the devil was near – that he could hear the devil's bell calling, and that he caught sight of its flaming eyes in the shadows.

A cloak of darkness fell over them in the middle of the interrogation. It lasted only a few seconds. And when it lifted, Ouga was gone. Only the echo of his screams told them where he had been taken.

There was no sign of Ouga in the nightscape so far. One of Naotake's fellow ANBU ninjas already decided to jump off the nearest roof in search of their target.

Devils with bells and flaming eyes…Well the flaming eyes made sense, but bells..? Why would a devil carry bells?

The wind shifted – something flew swiftly on Naotake's way.

He quickly jumped forward, catching the human-sized mass hurled toward him. He landed on the nearest roof – his teammate quickly running to his aid.

The ANBU ninjas all looked defensively around, ready to attack at any sign of offense against them.

Naotake looked at the heavy mass in his arms and froze.

It was Ouga – unconscious...and wet... stinking with human urine.

He looked up at where it flew from and noticed a shadow at the edge of the ten-storey building several roofs away.

The wind blew a chilling hymn…the high-pitched sound of a jiggling round bell singing in the air.

"Is that-" mumbled the ANBU ninja beside him.

Naotake could make out a black cloak in the shadow dancing in the wind, with locks of his black hair swaying in the chilly breeze. It was a man. The light of the full moon glinted on something dangling from the man's ear…

…The ringing bell?

Then the man turned to face them – his eyes burning in a shade of blood…

"Sharingan," Naotake breathed…his eyes wide with shock.

There was only one clan that had those eyes, and there was only one surviving descendant of the clan…

And he disappeared a year ago.

_Note:_

_I don't write epilogues. _

_~Advance Happy Holidays! _^ v ^ ~


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